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7*  J 


INTO   THE 


EXPEDIENCY  OF  DISPENSING 


BANK  AGENCY  AND  BANK  PAPER 


IN    THE 


OF  THE 


BY  WILUAMn.  GOUGE, 

AUTHOR  OF  A  SHORT  HISTORY  OF  JAPER  MONET  AND   BANKING. 


PRINTED    HY     \v  I  I.  ),  I    v  M     STAVELY, 

No.  12  Pear  Street.  f^j 
1837. 


3PHECKELS 


PREFACE. 


IF  any  thing  advanced  in  this  publication,  in  relation  to  the 
characteristics  of  our  Banking  System,  should  appear  to  the 
reader  to  require  explanation,  he  is  respectfully  referred,  for 
the  best  explanation  the  writer  is  able  to  give,  to  a  work  pub- 
lished originally  at  Philadelphia,  in  1833,  and  afterwards 
stereotyped  at  New  York.  The  whole  title,  as  it  was  framed 
with  the  intention  of  making  it  as  descriptive  as  possible  of  the 
contents  of  the  work,  is  here  given,  viz: 

"A  Short  History  of  Paper  Money  and  Banking  in  the 
United  States,  including  an  Account  of  Provincial  and  Conti- 
nental Paper  Money.  To  which  is  prefixed,  An  Inquiry  into 
the  Principles  of  the  System,  with  considerations  of  its  effects  on 
Morals  and  Happiness.  The  whole  intended  as  a  Plain  Ex- 
position of  the  way  in  which  Paper  Money  and  Money  Corpo- 
rations affect  the  interests  of  different  portions  of  the  Commu- 
nity." 

Of  the  Philadelphia  edition,  no  copies  are  for  sale.  The 
type  of  the  New  York  edition  is  rather  small.  But  it  was 
impossible,  without  using  small  type,  to  make  a  twenty-five 
cents'  book  out  of  matter  which,  if  printed  in  the  style  usually 
adopted  in  publications  relative  to  currency  and  finance, 
would  cost  two  or  three  dollars. 

In  that  work  the  writer  analyzed  the  various  operations  of 
the  Banking  System  with  as  much  accuracy  as  he  could;  en- 
deavored to  trace  out  the  remote  effects  of  these  operations 
on  society ;  illustrated  the  nature  of  the  system  by  as  copious 
extracts  from  historical  documents  as  his  limits  would  permit 
him  to  introduce ;  and  supported  the  principal  positions  he  took, 
by  quotations  from  the  writings  and  speeches  of  the  most  emi- 
nent men  of  all  parties.  He  has  since  re-examined  the  sub- 
ject, without  being  able  to  detect  any  material  error  in  his 
analysis:  and  the  events  of  the  last  few  years  have,  certainly, 


IV 

not  been  such  as  to  convince  him  that  he  had  over-rated  the 
evils  of  Paper-money  Banking. 

A  leading  doctrine  of  the  afore-mentioned  work  is,  that  the 
fiscal  concerns  of  the  United  States  ought  to  be  entirely  sepa- 
rated from  the  concerns  of  the  Banks.  In  the  First  Part,  one 
chapter  is  devoted  exclusively  to  this  subject.  In  various 
other  places  it  is  adverted  to,  and  towards  the  close  of  the 
twenty-second  chapter  of  the  Second  Part,  in  which  chapter 
a  narrative  is  given  of  certain  proceedings  of  the  United  States 
Bank,  it  is  expressly  said,  "  If  the  State  Banks  were  made  the 
depositories  of  the  public  funds,  the  evil  would  be  increased." 

In  the  early  part  of  the  year  1835,  the  writer  made  par- 
ticular inquiries  into  the  feasibility  of  dispensing  with  bank 
paper  and  bank  agency  in  our  fiscal  concerns.  He  had  long 
been  convinced  that  this  was  quite  practicable,  but  he  never, 
till  after  having  instituted  this  particular  examination,  had 
supposed  that  the  money  affairs  of  the  General  Government 
could  be  conducted  with  so  very  great  safety,  so  very  great 
ease,  and  so  very  great  economy,  through  a  system  of  Sub- 
Treasury  Offices,  as  utterly  to  take  away  every  pretext  for 
employing  any  Bank  in  this  business.  The  second  chapter  of 
this  publication  is  part  of  an  article  written  in  1835,  but  not 
then  printed. 

It  is  possible,  that  under  a  Sub-Treasury  System,  the  num- 
ber of  payments  and  receipts  would  be  greater  than  is  sup- 
posed in  the  second  chapter.  In  some  branches  of  the  public 
service,  a  habit  may  have  insensibly  crept  in,  of  "  lumping" 
the  public  accounts,  for  the  sake  of  convenience.  Using  banks 
as  fiscal  agents  would  naturally  lead  to  this  kind  of  "  lump- 
ing." Be  this  as  it  may,  the  whole  amount  to  be  received  and 
paid  away  is  not  so  great  as  to  make  it  impossible  to  go  through 
the  business  with  ease,  even  if  the  receipts  and  payments 
should  be  so  divided  as  to  be  of  no  greater  sum  than  fifty  dol- 
lars each.  "  Lumping"  is  very  convenient,  but  individuali- 
zation  ensures  correctness.  This  is  a  leading  feature  in  the 
French  financial  system,  the  machinery  of  which  is  so  excel- 
lent, that  it  has  excited  the  admiration  of  the  most  distinguish- 
ed Political  Economists  of  Great  Britain. 

May  29M,  1837. 


CHAPTER  I. 

Preliminary  Remarks. 

AT  the  present  moment,  all  the  Banks  in  the  United  States 
are  bankrupt;  and,  not  only  they,  but  all  the  Insurance  Com- 
panies, all  the  Rail-road  Companies,  all  the  Canal  Companies, 
all  the  City  Governments,  all  the  County  Governments,  all 
the  State  Governments,  the  General  Government,  and  a  great 
number  of  the  people.  This  is  literally  true.  The  only  legal 
tender  is  gold  and  silver.  Whoever  cannot  pay,  on  demand, 
in  the  authorized  coin  of  the  country,  a  debt  actually  due,  is, 
in  point  of  fact,  bankrupt :  although  he  may  be  at  the  very 
moment  in  possession  of  immense  wealth,  and  although,  on  the 
winding  up  of  his  affairs,  he  may  be  shown  to  be  worth  mil- 
lions. 

The  consequences  of  this  state  of  things  will  not  be  confined 
to  our  own  country.  They  will  be  felt  wherever  credit  and 
commerce  is  known.  In  Great  Britain  the  effects  will,  in 
all  probability,  be  very  momentous.  Nor  will  they  termi- 
nate there.  France,  though  she  has  little  paper  money, 
is  borne  down  by  an  immense  public  debt.  So  is  Holland. 
So  are  other  countries  of  Europe.  The  explosion  will 
shake  every  government  which  has  depended  on  credit  as 
a  means  of  carrying  on  its  fiscal  operations.  Thrones  may 
be  toppled  over,  and  ancient  forms  of  government  abolish- 
ed. The  political  consequences  may  not  extend  beyond  Eu- 
rope: but  the  commercial  consequences  will  be  felt  in  Africa 
and  Asia.  The  panic  of  1825,  produced  a  scarcity  of  money 
at  the  Cape  of  Good  Hope,  and  bankruptcies  in  Calcutta. 
The  effects  of  this  convulsion  will  be  felt  in  Canton;  and 
though  the  Japanese  resolutely  refuse  to  trade  with  Christians, 


even  they  will  not  escape :  they  will  be  made  to  feel  through 
their  commercial  connexions  with  the  Chinese. 

The  wonder,  however,  ought  not  to  be  that  the  catastrophe 
has  happened,  but  that  it  did  not  happen  sooner.  It  was,  as  ap- 
pears from  Mr.  Nicholas  Biddle's  declaration,  prevented  from 
happening  in  the  year  1825,  by  his  hurrying  from  Philadelphia 
to  New  York,  and  prevailing  on  a  certain  bank,  in  the  latter 
city,  to  accept  of  a  draft  on  New  Orleans,  in  place  of  no  very 
large  amount  of  specie.  In  the  same  memorable  year,  the 
Bank  of  England  was  prevented  from  stopping  payment,  by 
incidents  which,  in  themselves,  were  apparently  of  as  little 
moment  as  Mr.  Nicholas  Biddle's  night-journey  from  Phila- 
delphia to  New  York. 

That  the  system  would  explode,  has  long  been  known ;  but 
the  exact  time  none  could  foretell.  Though'  nothing  is  more 
certain  than  death,  nothing  is  more  uncertain  than  the  day  of 
its  occurrence.  Equally  impossible  was  it  to  foresee  the  proxi- 
mate cause  of  the  catastrophe.  In  the  middle  states,  the  un- 
expected and  lamented  death  of  Mr.  Flemming,  appears  to 
have  hastened  the  event.  This  produced  a  run  on  the  Me- 
chanics Bank,  of  which  he  had  been  president,  which  was 
followed  by  a  run  on  the  other  banks  of  New  York.  But 
while  one  spark  fired  the  magazine  in  the  middle  states,  an- 
other must  have  fired  it  in  the  south-western — for  the  banks 
of  Natchez,  Mobile,  and  New  Orleans,  stopped  payment  be- 
fore intelligence  could  be  conveyed  to  them  of  what  had  oc- 
curred in  the  east  The  system  was  as  combustible  as  tinder, 
in  every  part  of  the  country.  It  would  have  blown  up  even 
if  Mr.  Flemming  had  not  died.  It  is  very  difficult  to  believe 
that  the  principal  banks  had  not  some  understanding  with  one 
another,  in  regard  to  a  result,  which  they  must  for  some 
time  have  been  convinced  was  inevitable.  Great  would  have 
been  their  triumph  if  they  could  have  caused  the  western 
banks  to  be  the  first  to  stop.  And  not  a  little  manoeuvring 
has  probably  been  played  off  between  the  banks  of  Philadel- 
phia, New  York,  Baltimore,  and  Boston,  each  anxious  that 
the  banks  of  some  other  city  should  take  the  lead  in  suspend- 
ing payment,  and  each  ready  and  willing  to  imitate  the  ex- 
ample. The  event  has  been  such  as  must  deeply  impress  the 


public  with  the  nature  of  the  system.  The  banks  in  the 
great  commercial  emporium  have  been  the  first,  in  the  mid- 
dle states,  to  suspend  payment ;  yet  the  banks  in  the  south- 
western states  cannot  declare  that  this  was  the  efficient  cause 
of  their  closing  their  vaults.  They  were  forced  to  acknow- 
ledge their  inability  to  meet  their  engagements  before  they 
could  possibly  know  what  had  taken  place  in  New  York. 
Thus  the  public  have  evidence  of  the  unsoundness  of  the  sys- 
tem in  its  different  parts.  A  spark  dropped  any  where  would 
have  fired  the  whole  train. 

The  consequences  will  not  be  confined  to  the  present  age. 
war  between  specie  and  paper  money  is  now  fairly  begun. 
There  may  be  many  traitors,  and  many  trimmers,  but  there 
can  be  no  rieutralsj  So  long  as  this  conflict  lasts,  the  disasters 
it  will  produce  will  be  greater  than  would  be  occasioned  by  a 
contest  with  the  most  powerful  nation  on  the  globe.  The 
sooner  it  is  terminated,  the  better  for  all  concerned.  The  re- 
sult will  determine  the  destinies  of  the  country. 

The  opposition  party  ascribe  the  calamities  of  the  present 
times  to  the  measures  of  the  late  administration.  The  ad- 
ministration party  ascribe  them  to  the  proceedings  of  the  op- 
position. In  a  certain  extent,  both  may  here  be  right,  and 
both  may  be  wrong.  The  exact  degree  in  which  each  is  to 
blame  must  be  left  to  the  decision  of  future  ages.  Men  who 
are  in  the  vortex  of  party  politics,  are  not  competent  judges  of 
either  their  own  actions  or  those  of  their  opponents.  The 
philosopher  will  endeavor  to  place  himself  in  the  situation  of 
the  man  of  after-times,  and  strive  to  prevent  his  political  sym- 
pathies and  antipathies,  and  also  his  personal  interests  from 
influencing  his  judgment.  The  patriot  will  carefully  inves- 
tigate the  causes  of  the  present  calamities,  but  he  will  do  so 
with  the  single  eye  of  being  thereby  the  better  able  to  apply 
a  remedy,  and  to  prevent  the  recurrence  of  evils. 

A  simple  arithmetical  equation  will  determine  the  degree  in 
which  the  State  Banks,  and  the  United  States  Bank,  have  con- 
tributed to  the  present  disastrous  state  of  affairs.  'The  United 
States  Bank  has,  or  had,  one  principal  and  twenty-five  sub- 
ordinate offices.  The  State  Banks  are  about  seven  hundred 
in  number,  with  one  hundred  and  twenty  branches,  more  or 


less.  Now,  as  twenty-six  are  to  eight  hundred  and  twenty, 
so  are  the  evils  produced  by  the  United  States  Bank,  to 
the  evils  produced  by  the  State  Banks. 

Another  way  of  determining  the  degree  of  evil  they  have 
produced,  is  by  comparing  the  amount  of  their  capitals.  Then, 
as  thirty-five  millions,  are  to  two  hundred  and  forty-one  mil- 
lions, less  or  more,  so  are  the  evils  produced  by  the  United 
States  Bank  to  the  evils  produced  by  the  State  Banks. 

An  examination  of  the  peculiarities  in  the  constitution  of 
different  banks,  and  an  inquiry  into  the  particulars  of  their 
management,  might  lead  to  a  more  accurate  apportionment 
of  the  censure  each  should  bear.  But  this  would  be  a  tedious 
operation,  and,  at  the  present  moment,  it  may  be  dispensed 
with. 

Our  present  condition  is  very  accurately  set  forth  in  the 
Holy  Scriptures.  We  therein  read,  that,  "  when  the  unclean 
spirit  is  gone  out  of  a  man,  he  walketh  through  dry  places, 
seeking  rest :  and  finding  none,  he  saith  to  himself,  I  will  re- 
turn unto  my  house  whence  I  came  out,  and  when  he  cometh 
he  findeth  it  swept  and  garnished :  then  goeth  he  and  taketh 
to  him  seven  spirits  more  wicked  than  himself,  and  they  enter 
in  and  dwell  there,  and  the  last  state  of  that  man  is  worse  than 
the  first." 

For  man,  read  country,  and  you  might  suppose  you  were 
reading  American  history.  The  unclean  spirit  is  the  Bank 
of  the  United  States.  We  cast  it  out,  or  apparently  cast  it 
out,  but  it  has  returned  upon  us  with  seven  spirits  more  wicked 
than  itself,  that  is  to  say,  with  the  Deposit  Banks,  and  the  last 
state  of  our  country  is  worse  than  the  first. 

Such  must  ever  be  the  result  of  efforts  to  cast  out  devils 
by  Beelzebub,  the  prince  of  devils.  !.  England  will  have  woful 
experience  of  this  as  well  as  the  United  States.  She  has  been 
endeavoring  to  correct  the  evils  produced  by  the  smaller  banks, 
through  the  medium  of  one  great  bank.  We  have  tried  to 
escape  from  the  evils  of  a  great  bank,  by  cherishing  the  smaller 
banks.  The  result  in  both  countries  will  be  essentially  the 
same,  though  differing  according  to  circumstances. 

The  simple  truth  is,  that  paper  money  banking  is  radi- 
cally wrong.  Sophistry  may  disguise  the  fact  as  it  will, 


but  there  is  an  everlasting  distinction  between  a  promise  to 
pay  gold  and  silver,  and  an  actual  payment  of  gold  and  silver: 
and  if  one  man's  promises  to  pay  are  made  to  go  as  far  as  an- 
other's actual  payment,  whatever  one  man  gains  by  paper 
money  another  man  loses.  Besides  this,  tjirough  JJie  _work- 
ingsof  the  Banking  System,  the  natural  operations  of  credit  are 
inverted.  A  bank  note  is  nothing  more  than  an  evidence  of 
debt,  and  docs  not  differ  in  its  essential  character  from  any 
other  simple  acknowledgment  of  debt.  But  when  individuals 
incur  debts  which  it  is  known  will  remain  for  a  time  undis- 
charged, they  pay  interest  to  those  to  whom  the  debt  is  due. 
In  the  case  of  the  banks  this  is  reversed.  It  is  to  them  that 
trust  is  given,  yet  they  receive  interest  as  if  they  trusted 
the  public.  Interest  should,  if  paid  to  any,  be  paid  to  the 
farmers,  mechanics,  and  other  producers  and  proprietors  whose 
capital  is  transferred  from  them  to  speculators,  through  the 
medium  of  the  notes  the  banks  put  in  circulation. 

Another  very  strong  objection  to  our  present  mode  of  bank- 
ing, is  its  being  carried  on  by  corporations.  It  should  be  an 
object  with  a  republican  government,  to  preserve  the  indivi- 
duality of  its  citizens.  The  moment  two  men  are  banded  to- 
gether by  act  jrfjaw^nd  an  artificial  pnwpf  foprphy  given 

them,  the  natural  equilibrium  ofjsocial  order  is  disturbed. 
This  is  done  by  our  Banking  system.  The  most  powerful 
men  in  the  community  are  thereby  confederated,  and  a  money- 
ed aristocracy  established. 

A  no  less  strong  objection  to  modern  banking  is,  the  ruinous 
fluctuations  it  causes  in  all  kinds  of  business,  by  alternate  ex- 
pansions and  contractions  of  the  currency.  These  are  inse- 
perable  from  the  system.  Bank  credit,  as  a  branch  of  com- 
mercial credit,  is  affected  by  every  wind  that  blows;  and  bank 
medium  is  affected  by  every  change  in  bank  credit.  If  any 
individual  can  discover  the  means  by  which  the  weight,  mal- 
leability, and  other  physical  properties  of  gold  can  be  imparted 
to  lead,  that  individual  may  be  able  to  devise  a  plan  by  which 
credit  money  may  be  made  as  secure  and  as  stable  a  medium 
as  metallic  money. 

The  especial  object  of  the  present  publication  is  not,  how- 
»'\cr.  to  expose  all  the  eviN  of  paper  money  banking,  but  to 


10 

endeavor  to  show,  that,  even  if  it  shall  be  deemed  best,  or 
found  necessary  to  continue  the  system,  the  fiscal  concerns  of 
the  United  States  ought  to  be  completely  separated  therefrom; 
that  it  will  be  quite  practicable  to  carry  on  the  affairs  of  go- 
vernment without  the  agency  of  either  a  National  Bank  or 
the  State  Banks;  and  that  great  advantages  will  arise  from 
keeping  the  proper  concerns  of  government  as  separate  as 
possible  from  the  proper  concerns  of  individuals  and  of  cor- 
porations. 

The  attempt  to  do  this  is  not  premature. 
An  effort  will,  no  doubt,  be  made  by  some  to  reconstruct  the 
State  Bank  Deposit  System,  or  to  build  up  some  other  system 
of  the  like  character  on  its  ruins. 

Others  will  be  very  desirous  to  see  the,  Bank  of  the  United 
States  re-chartered  by  Congress. 

Others,  who  have  constitutional  scruples  about  the  power  of 
Congress  to  charter  a  National  Bank,  will  be  anxious  that 
government  shall  employ,  as  its  agent,  the  United  States  Bank 
chartered  by  the  State  of  Pennsylvania, 

Others,  again,  who  will  be  violently  opposed  tore-chartering 
the  Bank  of  the  United  States,  will  be  warmly  in  favor  of 
chartering  a  Bank  of  the  United  States.  This  party  will  be 
divided  into  many  sub-parties.  Some  will  be  simple  specula- 
tors, looking  solely  to  lucre.  Others  will  be  politicians,  fond 
enough  of  money,  but  loving,  besides,  both  power  and  popu- 
larity. They  would  like  well  enough  to  have  a  National 
Bank  for  the  exclusive  benefit  of  themselves  and  their  parti- 
cular friends ;  but  in  a  case  of  emergency  they  will  join  hands 
with  the  mere  speculators,  and,  not  without  reluctance,  share 
the  profits  with  them.  Some  of  these  will  be  modest  enough 
to  cloak  their  scheme  by  calling  their  new  National  Bank  a 
Loan  Office,  or  giving  it  some  other  name  less  offensive  to  the 
democracy  than  that  of  "  Bank  of  the  United  States."  Some 
will  try  to  evade  the  force  of  constitutional  objections,  by  pro- 
posing the  establishment  of  an  immense  bank  in  the  District 
of  Columbia,  with  which  alone  the  Treasury  shall  have  imme- 
diate transactions,  while  the  great  bank  of  the  District  of  Co- 
lumbia shall,  through  its  connexions  with  the  State  Banks, 
manage  the  money  concerns  of  the  government  in  various  parts 


j  OP  THE 

UNIVERSITY 


of  the  Union.  Others  will  go  more  directly  to  work  and  bring 
forward  plans  for  an  enormous  credit  and  currency  institution, 
in  which  the  United  States  Government,  each  of  the  State 
Governments,  and  a  multitude  of  private  individuals  shall  all 
be  partners  together.  Others,  again,  will  be  for  converting 
the  very  Government  itself  into  a  Banking  Institution,  through 
the  issue  of  Treasury  notes,  or  some  other  kind  of  national 
paper  money,  to  be  lent  out  for  the  benefit  of  individuals,  or, 
perhaps,  of  corporations. 

Plausible,  no  doubt,  will  be  many  of  the  schemes  which  will 
be  brought  forward,  and  plausible  will  be  the  arguments  by 
which  they  will  be  supported.  But  one  objection  will  apply 
to  them  all.  The  business  of  banking  is  entirely  distinct  from 
the  business  of  government;  and  any  two  subjects  which  are 
so  completely  distinct  ought  to  be  kept  completely  separate. 
This  point  is  conceded  by  all  the  more  intelligent  of  the  advo- 
cates of  banking.  All  these  declare,  that  the  less  government 
has  to  do  with  banks,  and  the  less  banks  have  to  do  with  go- 
vernment, the  better  for  both.  The, government  ought  to 
manage  its  fiscal  concerns  through  the  agency  of  its  own  offi- 
cers. It  should  have  no  more  to  do  with  banking  and  broker- 
age, than  with  tailoring  and  shoemaking.  The  trade  in  money 
ought  to  be  conducted  in  the  same  way  as  the  trade  in  flour 
or  in  tobacco.  The  business  of  receiving  deposits,  making  dis- 
counts, and  dealing  in  exchanges,  should  be  left  to  the  free 
competition  of  individuals.  If  there  are  any  public  banks, 
they  should  be  mere  offices  of  deposit  and  transfer,  like  the 
old  Bank  of  Amsterdam. 

Any  institution,  call  it  by  what  name  you  will,  which  shall 
make  loans  and  discounts,  and  in  which  the  concerns  of  go- 
vernment shall  be  mixed  up  with  those  of  individuals,  will  be 
a  National  Bank — a  bank  of  the  United  States.  Such  an  in- 
stitution must  be  either  controlled  by  the  government,  or  in- 
dependent in  its  management.  If  controlled  by  the  govern- 
ment, money  power  and  political  power  will  be  in  the  same 
hands — a  union  which  will  be  fatal  to  republicanism.  If  in- 
dependent in  its  management,  and  powerful  enough  to  regulate 
our  seven  hundred  State  Banks,  with  their  one  hundred  and 
twenty  branches,  it  will  be  powerful  enough  to  control  both 


12 

the  government  and  the  people.  If  not  powerful  enough  to 
regulate  the  seven  hundred  State  Banks,  and  thus  to  control 
both  the  government  and  the  people,  it  will  not  answer  the 
principal  end  which  the  advocates  of  such  an  institution  urge 
as  a  reason  for  its  establishment. 

If  instead  of  a  National  Bank,  we  select  a  number  of  State 
Banks  as  fiscal  agents,  we  have,  instead  of  one,  many  United 
States  Banks.  Calling  them  Deposit  Banks  does  not  alter 
their  nature.  The  United  States  Bank  or  banks  of  Mr. 
Nicholas  Biddle,  was  a  league  of  twenty-six  banks,  situated  in 
different  States,  with  one  of  those  banks  acting  as  head  to  the 
others.  The  United  States  Bank  or  banks  of  Mr.  Reuben 
M.  Whitney,  was  a  league,  at  first  of  three  or  four  banks, 
gradually  increased  to  ninety-one  banks,  situated  in  different 
parts  of  the  country.  If  Mr.  Whitney's  banks  have  done  more 
evil  than  Mr.  Biddle's,  it  ought  not  thence  to  be  inferred  that 
the  financial  talents  of  the  former  gentleman  are  inferior  to 
those  of  the  latter.  Ninety-one  banks,  with  a  capital  of  eighty- 
one  millions  of  dollars,  will  necessarily  do  more  evil  than 
twenty-six  banks  with  a  capital  of  thirty-five  millions. 

If  the  head  of  twenty -six  paper  money  institutions  was  so 
powerful,  that  it  was  at  one  time  a  question  which  had  the 
most  influence,  Andrew  Jackson,  President  of  the  United 
States,  or  Nicholas  Biddle,  President  of  the  United  States 
Bank;  and  if  the  mere  agent  of  a  half  formed  league  of  some- 
thing less  than  one  hundred  State  Banks  had  so  much  power 
as  to  be  able  to  bid  defiance  to  all  the  force  and  talent  of  the 
opposition,  in  Congress  and  out  of  Congress,  (including  Mr. 
Biddle  himself,)  what  will  be  the  power  of  the  man  who  shall 
be  at  the  head  of  a  credit  institution  sufficiently  strong  to  re- 
gulate Mr.  Biddle's  bank,  Mr.  Whitney's  banks,  and  all  the 
other  banks  in  the  country  ?  Suppose  such  a  bank  to  be  con- 
trolled by  the  government:  would  not  the  President  of  the 
United  States,  or,  peradventure,  the  Secretary  of  the  Trea- 
sury, be  the  most  powerful  monarch  on  earth?  Suppose  it  to 
be  independent  of  the  government:  might  it  not  crush  the  go- 
vernment, and,  with  the  government,  crush  also  the  people  ? 

Happily  we  are  not  reduced  to  a  choice  of  either  of  these 
awful  alternatives.  The  only  reasons  urged  in  favor  of  a  Na- 


13 

tional  Bank,  or  for  connecting  the  affairs  of  the  United  States 
in  any  way  with  Banking  institutions,  are 

1st.  That  the  issues  of  the  States  Banks  may  be  checked. 

2nd.  That  exchanges  between  different  parts  of  the  coun- 
try may  be  regulated. 

3d.  That  the  fiscal  concerns  of  the  United  States  may  be 
conducted  with  safety  and  convenience. 

We  shall  take  up  these  points  in  order ;  bestow  a  few 
thoughts  on  the  two  first,  and  treat  of  the  third  more  at 
large. 

First,  in  relation  to  the  power  of  a  National  Institution  to 
regulate  the  issues  of  the  State  Banks.  The  circumstances 
which  in  ordinary  times  lead  banks  to  expand  are  usually  some 
favorable  change  in  business  prospects,  inspiring  enterprising 
men  with  confidence.  The  circumstances  which  lead  banks  to 
contract  their  issues  in  ordinary  times  are,  of  course,  exactly 
the  reverse  of  those  which  lead  them  to  expand.  A  national 
credit  money  institution  would  be  operated  upon  by  exactly  the 
same  causes  as  the  great  body  of  State  Banks,  and  in  exact- 
ly the  same  way.  It  would  expand  and  contract  just  as  they 
did,  in  addition  to  which  it  would  be  exposed  to  additional 
contractions  and  expansions  from  the  favorable  or  unfavor- 
able circumstances  in  which  the  government  might  be  placed. 

The  natural  tendency  of  such  a  bank  would,  however,  be 
to  expansion.  Unless  it  did  a  great  amount  of  business  it 
would  have  very  little  effect  on  the  State  Banks.  Neither 
could  the  president  of  such  an  institution,  unless  he  pursued 
this  course,  make  heavy  dividends  for  his  stockholders,  or  ac- 
quire the  reputation  of  being  a  great  financier.  To  keep  a 
very  large  amount  of  notes  in  circulation  is  regarded  by  the 
banks  as  evidence  of  superior  generalship.  The  president 
of  the  U.  S.  Bank  has  repeatedly  called  the  attention  of  the 
stockholders  to  his  own  skill  and  success  in  this  branch  of  ma- 
nagement. His  predecessor  was  very  unpopular  with  his  stock- 
holders because  he  did  not  flood  the  country  with  paper,  and 
raise  the  price  of  stock  in  the  market. 

The  mere  errors  of  judgment  which  might  be  committed  by 
the  managers  of  a  National  Bank,  sufficiently  powerful  to  re- 
gulate the  State  Banks,  might  throw  the  whole  business  of  the 


14 

country  into  confusion.  The  Bank  of  England  has  been  the 
chief  cause  of  the  commercial  convulsions  that  country  has 
experienced.  But  for  it,  the  private  bankers,  and  even  the 
recently  established  joint-stock  banks,  would  have  done  com- 
paratively little  evil. 

By  simply  disconnecting  itself  with  all  kinds  of  credit  in- 
stitutions, the  United  States  government  may  exercise  a  more 
salutary  influence  over  the  State  Banks  than  it  can  possibly 
do  by  any  corporation  it  may  establish.  "The  constant  ten- 
dency of  banks,"  as  Mr.  Biddle  has  said,  "  is  to  lend  too  much 
and  to  put  too  many  notes  in  circulation."  The  great  secret, 
then,  in  regulating  the  State  Banks,  is  to  prevent  their  lend- 
ing too  much  and  putting  too  many  notes  in  circulation.  And 
to  effect  this  a  constant  check  is  necessary.  We  shall  have 
such  a  check  in  steady  operation  if  the  United  States  govern- 
ment constantly  refuses  to  let  the  banks  have  its  funds  to  work 
with,  to  receive  bank  notes  in  payment  of  public  dues,  or  to 
employ  banks  in  any  case  as  fiscal  agents. 

It  must  be  obvious  to  every  person  that  if  three  or  four  of  the 
most  wealthy  and  most  respectable  men  in  New  York  should 
resolve  to  have  nothing  to  do  with  banks  or  with  bank  notes, 
such  conduct  on  their  part  would  go  a  considerable  way  to- 
wards regulating  the  paper  money  institutions  of  that  city. 
In  the  first  place,  the  banks  would  no  longer  have  the  spare 
funds  of  these  men  to  work  upon.  In  the  second  place,  as 
these  gentlemen  would  pay  nothing  but  specie  they  would  throw 
quite  a  considerable  amount  of  the  precious  metals  into  circu- 
lation. In  the  third  place,  as  they  would  receive  nothing  but 
specie,  the  merchants  with  whom  they  had  dealings  would  be 
obliged  to  import  specie  from  foreign  countries  if  they  could 
not  obtain  enough  at  home  to  meet  their  just  demands.  By 
all  these  operations  the  amount  of  metallic  medium  would 
be  increased,  and  the  amount  of  paper  medium  diminished. 
In  the  fourth  place,  the  example  of  these  three  or  four  gentle- 
men would  have  considerable  effect  on  the  rest  of  the  com- 
munity. 

Now,  the  relation  the  United  States  government  bears  to 
the  people  of  the  Union,  is,  in  this  respect,  similar  to  that 
which  the  three  or  four  principal  men  bear  to  the  rest  of  the 


15 

citizens  of  New  York,  i  The  United  States  government  is 
the  greatest  capitalist,  and  the  greatest  dealer  in  the  country  .J 
It  has  in  one  year  sold  twenty  million  dollars  worth  of  real 
estate,  and  hardly  thereby  diminished  in  a  perceptible  degree 
the  extent  of  its  landed  possessions.  Its  income  from  customs 
alone  amounts  in  some  years  to  twenty  millions  of  dollars.  (Let 
such  a  capitalist  and  such  a  dealer  decline  receiving  and  pay- 
ing bank  paper,  and  no  small  part  of  the  people  will  begin  to 
make  the  proper  distinctions  between  cash  and  credit  whereby 
the  issues  of  the  banks  will  be  brought  within  the  limits  of 
rationality. 

Only  separate  the  government  from  the  banks,  and  those 
institutions  will  be  shorn  of  half  their  power  to  do  evil. 

As  to  the  much  talked  of  subject  of  exchanges,  that  can  be 
despatched  in  a  few  words.  The  proper  trade  between  dif- 
ferent parts  of  the  country  is  not  an  interchange  of  bank  notes 
or  of  specie,  but  of  commodities.  If  a  national  or  a  state 
corporation  is  not  requisite  to  carry  the  cotton  of  Alabama 
from  Mobile  to  New  York,  or  the  flour  of  Ohio  from  Cincin- 
nati to  New  Orleans,  much  less  is  a  chartered  institution  re- 
quisite to  convey  from  point  to  point  the  specie  which  may 
be  the  equivalent  of  the  different  products  of  our  industry,  or 
the  bills  of  exchange  which  are  the  representatives  of  these 
products.  The  natural  rate  of  exchange  is  determined  by 
the  cost  of  transporting  specie.  This,  between  the  two  most 
remote  trading  places  in  the  Union,  can  never  exceed  two  or  two 
and  a  half  per  cent,  in  times  of  exemption  from  public  calamity. 
If  the  rate  of  exchange  ever,  under  ordinary  circumstances, 
exceeds  the  limits  above  stated,  it  is  owing  to  disorders  in  our 
currency  and  commerce,  produced  by  some  of  the  operations 
of  paper  money  banking.  If  the  United  States  government 
resolutely  refuses  to  receive  any  kind  of  bank  paper,  specie 
paying  banks  will  seldom  make  over  issues,  and  exchanges 
will  regulate  themselves.  If  the  State  governments  support 
the  State  banks  for  any  length  of  time  in  the  suspension  of 
specie  payments,  it  is  desirable  we  should  have  some  standard 
to  refer  to  by  which  the  extent  of  the  depreciation  of  notes 
in  different  parts  of  the  country  may  be  readily  ascertained. 
Otherwise  it  will  be  impossible  for  the  trade  between  different 


16 

parts  of  the  country  to  be  carried  on  with  any  degree  of  fair- 
ness ;  and  a  portion  of  dealers  will  confound  together  three 
things  which  are  perfectly  distinct,  viz:  the  rate  of  commer- 
cial exchanges,  depreciation  of  bank  notes,  and  the  usurious 
interest  which  is  sometimes  demanded  under  the  name  of  ex- 
change, whereby  they  will  for  ever  remain  ignorant  of  the 
truth  in  regard  to  these  important  particulars. 

Thus,  whether  the  State  Banks  resume,  or  whether  they  do  not 
resume  specie  payments,  the  true  policy  of  the  United  States 
government  is  to  separate  its  fiscal  concerns  from  4  private 
concerns  of  individuals  and  corporations.  If  the  State  Banks 
resume  specie  payments,  the  refusal  of  the  United  States  to 
receive  their  notes  will  prevent  over  issues,  and  thereby  pre- 
vent over  trading.  If  the  State  Banks  do  not  resume  specie 
payments,  this  policy  of  the  United  States  government  will 
enable  the  people  to  determine  in  what  degree  the  currency 
of  various  parts  of  the  country  is  below  the  specie  standard, 
and  to  regulate  their  transactions  accordingly. 

We  shall  next  endeavor  to  show  that  the  fiscal  concerns  of 
the  United  States  may  be  carried  on  with  perfect  ease  and 
perfect  safety  without  the  use  of  bank  paper,  and  without  the 
agency  of  any  credit  money  institution,  whether  incorporated 
by  Congress  or  by  a  State  government.  This  we  hope  to  suc- 
ceed in  demonstrating  to  the  satisfaction  of  every  unpreju- 
diced mind. 


CHAPTER  II. 

Outline  of  a  System  of  Sub-Treasury  Offices. 

GREAT  changes  have  taken  place  in  the  times  since  the  last 
quarter  of  1834,  which  was  the  period  for  which  the  public 
documents  were  consulted  to  ascertain  the  extent  of  business 
Sub-T^iiisury  Offices  would  have  to  perform.  But  no  quar- 
ter that  has  succeeded  would  afford  as  fair  means  of  judging 
what  the  nature  and  extent  of  our  fiscal  operations  are  likely 
to  be  in  future  years,  and  under  ordinary  circumstances.  The 
two  last  years  have  been  years  of  inflation  of  business  and  of 
surplus  revenue,  not  likely  soon  to  return;  and  the  public  money 
has  been  deposited  in  various  places,  and  kept  rolling  through 
the  country,  not  to  meet  the  wants  of  the  General  Government, 
but  to  answer  other  objects.  The  last  quarter  of  1834,  affords, 
therefore,  fairer  means  for  judgment  than  any  other  that  can 
be  selected.  Our  revenue  may,  for  several  years,  be  below 
what  used  to  be  its  ordinary  amount;  but  the  principles  of  a 
sound  fiscal  system  are  equally  applicable  to  any  amount  of 
revenue,  from  one  million  to  one  hundred  millions. 

I.    NECESSARY  NUMBER  OF  SUB-TREASURIES. 

On  the  5th  of  January,  1835,  the  public  moneys  were,  as 
appears  from  the  Treasurer's  statement  on  that  day,  kept  in. 
forty-two  local  banks,  and  in  the  United  States  Bank,  and  four- 
teen of  its  branches — in  all,  in  fifty-seven  depositories.  These 
were  situated  in  thirty-six  places,  viz: 

Portland,         Newport,        Washington,         Mobile, 
Portsmouth,    Providence,      Richmond,  New  Orleans, 

Boston,  Bristol,  Petersburg,          Pittsburgh, 

Salem,  Albany,  Norfolk,  Cincinnati, 

Burlington,  New  York,  Fredericksburg,  Louisville, 
Hartford,  Philadelphia,  Lynchburg,  Nashville, 
New  London,  Harrisburg,  Charleston,  Natchez, 

New  Haven,  Newcastle,       Savannah,  Detroit, 

Middletown,  Baltimore,       Augusta,  St.  Louis. 


18 

If  there  were  Sub-Treasuries  in  the  thirty-six  places  above 
mentioned,  performing  for  government  the  functions  performed 
by  the  banks,  the  Secretary  of  the  Treasury  would  have  as 
many  conveniencies  for  conducting  the  fiscal  concerns  of  the 
Union,  as  he  had  formerly  in  the  United  States  Bank  and  its 
branches,  and  as  he  had  in  the  beginning  of  the  year  (1835) 
in  the  selected  State  Banks. 


II.    EXPENSES  OF  SUB-TREASURIES. 

The  expenses  of  Sub-Treasuries  would  be  less  than  those  of 
banks.  Banks  often  deem  it  expedient  to  erect  costly  build- 
ings, in  order  that  they  may  impress  passers  by  with  an  idea  of 
their  great  wealth,  and  thereby  get  credit  among  the  people. 
As  their  operations  are  multifarious,  they  require  extensive 
accommodations,  The  officers  of  banks  have  much  labor  to 
perform  in  getting  notes  engraved  and  printed,  in  signing  and 
countersigning  them,  in  discounting  bills,  in  renewing  accom- 
modation notes,  in  exchanging  specie  for  notes,  and  notes  for 
specie,  in  serving  notices  on  the  drawers  and  endorsers  of  bills, 
In  protesting  bills  for  non-payment,  and  the  like.  From  all 
these  labors  the  officers  of  Sub-Treasuries  would  be  exempt. 
The  receiving  of  the  money  due  to  government,  the  safe-keep- 
ing of  the  same,  the  payment  of  it  when  legally  demanded, 
and  the  transmitting  of  certain  amounts  from  one  place  to  an- 
other, would  be  all  the  duties  they  would  be  required  to  per- 
form. 

A  gentleman  of  Philadelphia,  who  is  intimately  acquainted 
with  the  fiscal  concerns  of  the  United  States  in  that  city,  states, 
that  they  could  all  be  performed  by  the  following  officers,  at 
the  following  salaries : 

A  Sub-Treasurer,  at  a  salary  of  from  83000  to  $3850 

A  Receiver  of  Public  Moneys,  1600  to    1800 

A  Payer  of  Public  Moneys,  1800  to    2000 

Three  Clerks,  each  at  750  to      850 

A  Messenger,  a  Porter,  and  a  Watchman. 
He  is  governed  in  his  estimate  by  the  amount  paid  to  the 
Cashiers,  First  and  Second  Tellers,  and  Clerks,  in  the  most  re- 
spectable banks  in  Philadelphia.   .He  believes  that  men  of 


19 

equal  business  talents,  equal  respectability,  and  who  could 
give  as  good  security  as  is  given  by  the  officers  of  the  bank, 
will  be  found  willing  to  undertake  the  management  of  the 
Sub-Treasury  in  that  city,  and  that  they  would  manage  it 
with  fidelity. 

The  salaries  of  the  various  officers  mentioned  above,  would, 
at  the  highest  rates  specified,  amount  to  $10,200  a  year. 
If  to  this  sum  should  be  added  $100O  as  compensation  to 
the  Messenger,  Porter,  and  Watchman,  $1000  for  contin- 
gent expenses,  and  $500  as  interest  on  $10,000,  which  it 
might  be  expedient  to  invest  in  permanent  fixtures,  the  whole 
necessary  expense  of  a  Sub-Treasury  at  Philadelphia  would 
be  $12,700  a  year. 

In  ordinary  times,  one-eighth  part  of  the  fiscal  business  of 
the  United  States,  is  transacted  at  Philadelphia.  Supposing 
the  expense  of  managing  financial  concerns  to  be  no  greater 
in  other  places,  the  whole  cost  of  a  Sub-Treasury  System 
would  be  one  hundred  and  one  thousand  and  six  hundred 
dollars  a  year. 

The  people  ought  to  know  at  how  little  expense,  the  busi- 
ness which  has  been  performed  for  them  by  the  United  States 
Bank  and  its  branches,  and  more  recently  by  the  Deposit 
Banks,  could  be  performed  by  the  government's  own  agents. 

The  amount  seems  small,  but  other  facts  show  that  the 
necessary  expense  of  conducting  the  fiscal  concerns  of  the 
country,  by  the  agency  of  Sub-Treasuries,  would  be  inconside- 
rable. 

In  seven  of  the  places,  in  which  there  were  on  the  5th  of 
January,  1835,  deposits  of  public  money,  the  amount  in  each 
was  less  than  $1000.  These  places  were  Middletown,  Al- 
bany, New  London,  Harrisburg,  New  Castle,  Fredericksburg, 
and  Lynchburg.  In  four  other  places,  namely,  Salem,  New 
Haven,  Newport,  and  Bristol,  the  amount  was  less  than  $10,000 
in  each. 

An  account  of  the  receipts  and  expenditures  of  government, 
in  different  parts  of  the  Union,  would  show  that  New  York, 
Boston,  Philadelphia,  Washington,  New  Orleans,  Louisville, 
and  Detroit,  would  be  the  only  places  at  which  it  would  be 
necessary  to  have  Sub-Treasuries,  with  organizations  sepa- 


rate  from  those  of  the  Custom  Houses,  Land  Offices,  and  Post 
Offices.  Even  in  the  places  where  the  receipts  and  payments 
would  be  greatest,  the  number  and  amount  of  transactions 
would  be  small  when  compared  with  those  of  a  bank.  Sup- 
posing the  revenue  collected  at  New  Fork  to  be  nine  mil- 
lions a  year,  the  average  receipts  in  a  day  would  be  less  than 
thirty  thousand  dollars.  In  particular  seasons  the  amount  of 
receipts  is  much  greater  than  at  others ;  but  even  when  the 
amount  is  greatest,  the  business  connected  therewith  could 
be  despatched  without  difficulty.  In  no  one  week  of  either  of 
the  years  1833  or  1834,  did  the  amount  received  at  the  Cus- 
tom House,  in  New  York,  exceed  650,000  dollars,  in  Boston, 
160,000,  or  in  Philadelphia,  130,000. 

In  the  last  quarter  of  1834,  the  number  of  payments 
made,  on  account  of  the  Treasury,  by  all  the  Deposit  Banks 
in  the  city  of  New  York,  was,  independent  of  those  for  trans-? 
fer  drafts,  one  hundred  and  sixty-two,  being  less  than  two  a 
day.  The  whole  amount  of  payments,  on  public  account,  in 
that  city,  in  that  quarter,  was,  independent  of  transfer  drafts 
and  payments  by  the  United  States  Branch  Bank,  $711,162. 
The  payments  averaged  $4,389,88. 

The  payments  made  on  account  of  the  Treasurer,  at  the 
Bank  of  the  Metropolis,  at  Washington,  during  the -last  quar- 
ter of  1834,  amounted  to  $1,001,265.  The  whole  number  of 
payments  was  $351 — less  than  four  a  day.  They  averaged 
$2852,32. 

The  receipts  of  the  Bank  of  the  Metropolis,  on  the  public 
account,  in  the  same  period,  amounted  to  $56,939,  exclusive 
of  what  was  received  by  transfers  from  other  banks.  The 
whole  number  of  receipts  was  $301 — less  than  four  a  day,  and 
averaging  $184,23. 

The  Sub-Treasuries  at  New  York  and  Washington  would 
have  the  most  business.  To  be  convinced  that  the- necessary 
expense  of  the  system  would  not  be  great,  we  need  only 
take  into  consideration  the  number,  nature,  and  amount  of 
transactions.  Many  a  village  bank  has  more  business  to  at- 
tend to  than  would  devolve  on  the  principal  Sub-Treasuries  of 
the  union. 

There  are,  indeed,  payments  to  be  made  on  account  of  va- 


21 

nous  public  officers,  as  well  as  those  to  be  made  on  account 
of  the  treasurer  of  the  United  States.  In  the  deposit  banks 
of  New  York,  the  receipts  from  public  officers  during  the  last 
quarter  of  1834,  amounted  to  $480,130,  the  payments  on  their 
account  amounted  to  $568,000.  In  the  Bank  of  the  Metro- 
polis the  receipts  from  public  officers  during  the  month  of  Oc- 
tober, 1834,  amounted  to  $61,000,  the  payments  to  70,000. 
If  the  number  of  receipts  and  payments  on  account  of  public 
officers  should  be  equal  to  those  on  account  of  the  Treasurer 
of  the  United  States,  the  payments  in  New  York  would  be 
about  four  a  day.  In  Washington  the  payments  would  be 
about  eight  a  day :  the  receipts  about  six  a  day.  If  they 
should  be  five  or  six  times  as  numerous  the  whole  business 
could  be  performed  without  difficulty. 

The  expense  of  collecting  the  revenue  from  the  customs  is 
about  1,300,000  dollars  a  year.  It  may  be  made  a  question 
whether  the  establishment  of  a  Sub-Treasury  system  would 
add  one  cent  to  this  amount.  The  task  of  reducing  the  num- 
ber of  officers  is  an  invidious  one.  When  brought  down  to  the 
lowest  probable  number  there  will  still  remain  enough  to  per- 
form all  the  duties  required  to  be  done  in  Sub-Treasuries.  A 
new  apportionment  of  duties  would  be  the  only  change  that 
would  be  necessary.  If,  however,  additional  officers  should  be 
required,  the  whole  expense  need  not,  as  has  already  been 
shown,  exceed  one  hundred  thousand  dollars  a  year.  If 
sound  moral  and  political  considerations  require  the  govern- 
ment to  dispense  with  the  agency  of  banks,  it  should  not  hesir 
tate  as  to  what  course  it  should  pursue,  even  if  that  course 
should  involve  it  in  an  expense  of  a  million  a  year. 

IIL        ORGANIZATION    OF     SUB-TREASURIES,     AND    MANNER      OP 
TRANSACTING  BUSINESS  IN  THEM. 

The.  business  of  the  Sub-Treasuries,  would  naturally  divide 
itself  into  the  receiving,  safe-keeping  and  paying  away  of  the 
public  money,  together  with  that  of  transmitting  certain 
amounts  from  one  place  to  another.  So  few  would  be  the 
number  of  transactions  and  so  simple  their  nature  that  a  com- 
plex organization  would  not  be  necessary.  So  plain  would 
be  the  accounts  that  we  might  choose  for  chief  book-keepers 


22 

of  these  Sub-Treasuries,  the  disciples  of  the  ingenious  cord- 
wainer,  who  daily  threw  into  the  leg  of  one  boot  a  slip  con- 
taining a  statement  of  his  receipts  for  the  day,  and  into  the 
leg  of  another  boot  a  slip  containing  a  statement  of  his  ex- 
penditures. 

The  names  of  the  officers  would  proclaim  their  different 
duties,  and  all  persons  who  had  any  business  to  transact  at  the 
Sub-Treasuries  would  know  at  once  at  what  desk  to  apply. 

The  receiver  of  public  moneys  would  receive  the  amount 
paid  in  by  public  officers  and  by  debtors  to  the  public,  and  give 
receipts  for  the  same.  All  payments  made  to  him  would  be 
regularly  entered  into  a  register  kept  for  that  purpose.  The 
amount  should  be  summed  up  at  the  close  of  each  day,  and 
paid  over  to  the  sub-treasurer,  who  should  in  the  margin  of 
the  register  enter  an  acknowledgment  of  the  amount  thus 
received. 

In  like  manner  the  other  officers  would  go  through  their 
respective  duties,  as  designated  by  the  names  of  their  offices, 
the  Sub-Treasurer  having  the  general  superintendence  of  the 
establishment,  and  the  especial  care  of  the  public  money. 

That  the  amount  of  money  in  a  Sub-Treasury  might  be,  at 
any  moment,  readily  ascertained,  if  only  an  orderly  mode  of 
keeping  the  specie  should  be  adopted.  To  this  end  the  safety 
room  in  each  of  the  principal  Sub-Treasuries  should  be  fitted  up 
with  sliding  shelves  of  such  a  size  as  to  contain  a  definite  number 
of  pieces  of  coin,  say  1,000  or  5,000  dollars  in  half-dollars,  eagle 
or  half-eagles.  By  simply  drawing  out  the  shelves  it  could 
be  seen  whether  they  were  full  or  not,  and,  in  this  way,  the 
amount  of  money  in  the  largest  Sub-Treasuries  could  be  ascer- 
tained in  a  few  moments. 

A  fraud  might,  indeed,  be  practised  by  substituting  base 
coin  for  genuine.  To  guard  against  this  the  weight  of  each  shelf 
should  be  marked  on  it  as  tare,  and  suitable  scales  provided. 
Then  by  putting  the  money  shelves  into  the  scales  the  accura- 
cy of  the  ocular  examination  could  tested.  Inasmuch  as 
gold  and  silver  differ  in  their  specific  gravity  from  other  me- 
tals, a  hydrostatic  balance  would  afford  infallible  means  of 
detecting  any  fraud  that  might  be  attempted  by  substituting 
counterfeit  coin  for  genuine. 


23 

Especial  reference  is  here  had  to  the  organization  of  the 
principal  Sub-Treasuries,  and  the  manner  of  transacting  busi- 
ness in  them,  namely,  the  Sub-Treasuries  at  New  York, 
Washington,  Boston,  Philadelphia,  New  Orleans,  Louisville, 
and  Detroit.  But  at  whatever  place  public  money  is  received, 
retained,  or  disbursed,  accounts  should  be  kept  and  business 
transacted  according  to  one  set  of  general  principles. 

To  give  unity  and  congruity  to  the  fiscal  system  of  the 
country,  all  the  Custom  Houses,  Land  Offices,  Pension  Agencies, 
and  Post  Offices,  might  be  classed  as  Sub-Treasuries  of  the 
second,  third,  fourth,  fifth,  or  sixth  order,  according  to  the  na- 
ture and  number  of  the  receipts  and  payments  made  at  each. 
But  as  too  great  attention  to  details,  when  the  object  is  to 
establish  general  principles,  serves  only  to  confuse  the  mind,  a 
particular  view  of  the  rules  and  regulations  which  it  would  be 
proper  to  adopt  for  the  government  of  the  inferior  Sub-Trea- 
suries, would  here  be  out  of  place.  Let  only  the  principles  of 
the  system  be  well  matured  in  the  organization  of  the  seven 
principal  Sub- Treasuries,  and  it  will  be  easy  to  apply  them, 
with  such  modifications  as  circumstances  may  require,  to  the 
Sub-Treasuries  of  the  inferior  orders. 


IV.    TRANSMISSION  OF  PUBLIC  FUNDS. 

On  this  subject  it  is  necessary  to  say  but  little,  as  it  is  satis- 
factorily shown  in  the  Treasury  Report  of  the  15th  of  Decem- 
ber, 1834,  that  all  the  transfers  which  the  discontinuance  of 
the  agency  of  the  United  States  Bank  makes  it  incumbent  on 
government  to  effect,  will  amount  to  only  a  few  millions  in 
a  year,  and  that  as  the  accumulations  of  government  funds  are 
at  those  points  which  have  the  rate  of  exchange  in  their  favor, 
a  profit  might  be  made  on  these  transfers.  The  exchange 
dealings  of  the  United  States  Bank  are  stated  to  have  amount- 
ed, in  one  year,  to  two  hundred  and  twenty-four  millions. 
The  whole  amount  of  transfers,  which  it  would  be  necessary 
for  the  United  States  government  to  make,  in  the  course  of 
the  year,  would  not  exceed  seven  millions  of  dollars,  and  not 
more  than  three  millions  of  this  amount  would  be  to  any  great 
distance. 


24 

In  relation  to  but  few  subjects  has  error  been  more  current 
than  in  relation  to  the  agency  of  the  United  States  Bank,  in 
the  transmission  of  the  public  funds.  The  public  revenue  has 
been  collected  at  more  than  ten  thousand  points,  if  we  include 
the  Post  Offices,  and  disbursed  at  quite  as  many.  The  Bank 
of  the  United  States,  has,  on  ordinary  occasions,  transferred 
the  public  funds  to  and  from  only  twenty-six  of  these  points. 
At  the  most  difficult  points  of  transmission,  as,  for  example, 
from  the  remote  Land  Offices  to  the  places  where  branch 
banks  have  been  established,  and  from  such  places  to  the  Indian 
country  and  the  frontier  settlements,  the  United  States  Go- 
vernment has  transferred  the  public  funds  at  its  own  risk  and 
its  own  expense.  The  agency  of  the  United  States  Bank  has 
been  confined  to  the  transmission  of  the  public  funds  to  and 
from  the  points  most  intimately  connected  by  commerce — an 
agency  by  which  a  private  exchange  merchant  would  have 
realized  an  immense  fortune* 


V.    SAFEGUARDS  AGAINST  LOSS. 

It  must  be  evident  that  if  the  same  precautions  against  fire* 
robbers,  and  peculators,  should  be  adopted  by  the  government 
that  have  been  adopted  by  the  banks,  the  security  of  the  go- 
vernment would  be  as  great  as  that  of  the  banks.  Safety- 
rooms,  iron-chests,  iron-doors,  double-locks,  double-keys,  night- 
watchmen,  and  security  bonds,  would  be  of  as  much  service  to 
the  one  as  to  the  other.  The  banks  lose  by  bad  debts ;  but 
all  their  losses  from  other  sources,  in  the  course  of  any  given 
year,  bear  a  very  small  proportion  to  the  aggregate  amount 
they  have  at  stake.  Supposing,  then,  that  there  were  no  other 
guards  against  robbery,  peculation,  and  fire,  in  Sub-Treasuries 
than  in  banks,  the  risk  of  loss  would  be  proportionally  no 
greater,  and  as  the  whole  amount  at  risk  would  be  trifling 
compared  with  what  is  risked  by  the  banks,  the  amount  which 
might,  on  the  common  doctrine  of  chances,  be  expected  to  be 
lost,  would,  in  a  national  point  of  view,  be  altogether  insig- 
nificant. 

The  safeguards  against  loss,  would,  however,  be  much 
greater  in  Sub-Treasuries  than  in  banks. 


25 

In  the  first  place,  the  safeguard  against  fire  would  be  greater. 
A  fire  might  destroy  great  part  of  the  valuables  of  a  bank. 
The  most  it  would  do  in  the  safety-room  of  a  Sub-Treasury, 
would  be  to  melt  the  gold  and  silver.  The  coin  might  dis- 
appear, but  the  metal  would  remain. 

In  the  second  place,  the  security  against  robbers  would  be 
greater.  Instances  have  occurred  of  bank  robbers  carrying 
oflf  $70,000,  and,  perhaps,  more,  at  one  sweep,  in  paper  money. 
As  the  money  in  the  Sub-Treasuries  would  all  be  metallic, 
robbers,  if  they  should  break  in,  could  not  conveniently  carry 
off* any  very  great  amount. 

In  the  third  place,  the  securities  against  peculation  would 
be  much  greater  in  Sub-Treasuries  than  in  banks.  In  the  Sub- 
Treasury  books  there  would  be  no  fictitious  accounts  to  con- 
fuse and  confound  plain  people — no  room  for  mystification. 

The  principal  losses  which  the  banks  have  sustained  through 
their  officers,  have  been  from  the  said  officers  having  running 
accounts,  which  gave  them  an  opportunity  of  making  over- 
drafts, or  from  the  said  officers  or  their  friends  being  engaged 
in  business  connected,  either  directly  or  indirectly,  with  the 
system  of  bank  accommodations.  There  would  be  no  oppor- 
tunity for  such  acts  of  malversation  in  Sub-Treasuries,  because 
the  private  affairs  of  the  officers  would  be  kept  totally  dis- 
tinct from  those  of  the  public. 

In  the  fourth  place,  the  slate  of  the  affairs  of  a  Sub-Treasury 
could  be  subjected  to  much  more  frequent  and  much  more 
rigid  examinations  than  the  state  of  the  affairs  of  a  bank. 
A  committee  of  the  directors  of  the  United  States  Bank  make 
an  examination  once  a  quarter  into  the  condition  of  the  funds 
of  that  institution.  Bundles  of  notes  are  then  handed  them 
by  the  cashier  or  one  of  the  clerks,  and  they  having  full  con- 
fidence in  the  cashier  or  clerk,  usually  take  his  word  for  the 
amount  in  each  bundle.  The  real  security  against  loss  is  thus 
the  fidelity  of  the  sub-officer.  The  examination  of  the  state 
of  the  funds  in  the  Sub-Treasury  offices  might  be  monthly, 
weekly,  and  even  daily,  if  required,  and  be,  in  each  instance, 
a  real  examination,  provided  only  an  orderly  mode  of  keeping 
the  specie  should  be  adopted. 

Without  adverting  to  other  safe-guards  which  might  be 


26 

proposed,  it  may  be  affirmed  that  the  chance  of  loss  of  money 
in  Sub-Treasuries  would  be  altogether  too  small  to  afford  the 
slightest  objection  to  the  system.  Of  the  millions  which  have 
been  deposited  in  the  Mint  every  cent  has  been  faithfully  ac- 
counted for,  and  money  in  the  Sub-Treasuries  of  the  United 
States  may  he  made  as  safe  and  as  secure  as  human 
prudence  can  make  money  in  any  mint  or  bank  in  the  world. 
Every  week,  or  oftener  if  necessary,  specific  accounts  of 
the  transactions  in  each  Sub-Treasury  could  be  forwarded  to 
the  Treasurer  of  the  United  States,  with  duplicates  to  the 
Secretary  of  the  Treasury.  In  this  way  the  whole  system 
would  be  subject  to  constant  supervision.  And  while  the 
accounts  of  the  collectors,  post-masters,  registers  of  land 
offices,  pay  masters,  and  other  officers,  would  be  checks  on 
the  accounts  of  the  Sub-Treasurers;  the  accounts  of  the 
Sub-Treasurers  would,  in  their  turn,  be  checks  on  those  of 
the  receiving  and  disbursing  officers.  In  a  system  founded 
on  these  principles,  with  such  minor  regulations  as  experience 
might  show  to  be  appropriate,  it  would  be  almost  impossible 
that  any  great  abuse  of  the  public  funds  should  ever  occur. 


CHAPTER  III. 

Objections  Considered. 

THE  objections  which  will  be  made  to  the  plan,  of  which  an 
outline  is  given  in  the  preceding  chapter,  will  be  as  various  as 
the  passions,  prejudices,  and  interests  of  those  who  wish,  in 
some  way  or  other,  to  connect  the  proper  affairs  of  govern- 
ment, with  the  proper  affairs  of  corporations  and  of  individuals. 
A  prominent  objection  will  be,  that  it  will  deprive  the  banks, 
and  thereby  the  customers  of  the  banks,  of  the  use  of  the  pub- 
lic money.  To  this,  it  ought  to  be  a  sufficient  reply,  that 
there  is  no  kind  of  hocus  pocus  by  which  one  and  the  same 
sum  of  money  can,  at  one  and  the  same  time,  serve  the  pur- 
poses of  both  the  government  and  the  banks.  The  public 
service  will  be  likely  to  require  more  money  than  it  will,  for 
some  years,  be  easy  to  raise  from  customs  and  land  sales.  It 
will  be  time  enough  to  consider  what  disposition  shall  be  made 
of  the  surplus,  when  a  surplus  actually  exists.  It  has  been 
through  the  attempt  to  make  the  same  funds  serve  both  the 
purposes  of  the  public  and  of  corporations,  that  all  the  affairs 
of  the  country  have  been  thrown  into  confusion. 

If  there  ever  should  be  a  surplus  of  public  funds,  we  know 
riot  what  particular  merit  there  is  in  the  banking  and  specu- 
lating interests,  that  they  should  lay  claim  to  its  exclusive 
use.  A  perpetual  loan  of  money,  without  any  demand  of  in- 
terest for  the  same,  is  equivalent  to  a  gift  of  money.  If  that 
perpetual  free  loan  of  money,  by  the  government  to  the  banks 
and  speculators,  gives  them  a  credit  which  enables  them  to 
transfer  into  their  own  possession  the  capital  of  producers  and 
honest  proprietors,  it  is  the  most  objectionable  application  of 
the  public  funds  that  can  be  devised. 

The  maxim  of  a  republican  government  should  be  JUSTICE 


28 

TO  ALL,  FAVORS  TO  NONE.  It  cannot  grant  favors  to  some  with- 
out doing  injustice  to  others.  It  should  take  no  more  from 
the  people,  in  the  way  of  taxes,  than  is  absolutely  necessary 
for  public  purposes.  If,  through  any  unforseen  events,  it 
should  accumulate  a  surplus,  that  surplus  should  be  expended 
on  public  works  of  a  permanent  character,  within  the  design 
of  the  Constitution,  so  that  the  amount  of  necessary  taxation 
in  future  years  may  be  diminished. 

If  any  classes  of  the  community  deserve  the  favor  of  govern- 
ment, in  any  country,  they  are  the  farmers,  mechanics,  and 
other  hard-working  men.  But  the  surplus  public  fund  divided 
among  them,  either  in  the  way  of  loan  or  gift,  would  amount 
to  so  little  to  each,  as  to  be  unworthy  of  their  consideration. 
Add  to  this  that  our  farmers,  mechanics,  and  other  hard-work- 
ing men,  want  no  favors  from  government :  all  they  ask  is 
equal  handed  justice.  And  as  they  want  no  favors  for  them- 
selves, they  may  demand  as  a  right,  that  no  favors  be  granted 
to  the  banks  and  speculators,  especially  since  granting  favors 
to  them  will  be  doing  injustice,  either  directly  or  indirectly, 
to  the  great  body  of  the  community. 

The  average  amount  of  public  money  in  the  banks,  did  not, 
for  a  series  of  years  preceding  1835,  exceed  seven  million  dol- 
lars. Against  a  part  of  this,  warrants  were  constantly  outstand- 
ing, so  that  the  amount  the  banks  could  use  for  their  proper 
purposes  did  not  probably  exceed  five  millions  of  dollars.  Now 
five  millions  of  public  money  may  be  quite  sufficient  to  build 
up  a  National  Bank,  or  a  league  of  State  Banks,  and  in  con- 
junction with  a  law  making  the  notes  of  such  bank  or  banks 
receivable  for  customs  and  lands,  give  those  institutions  such 
power  and  credit,  that  certain  leading  speculators  may,  through 
their  operations,  realize  immense  fortunes.  But  five  millions, 
fairly  divided  among  a  nation  of  fifteen  millions,  will  be  only 
one-third  of  a  dollar  to  each.  Supposing  that  amount  to  re- 
main permanently  in  the  Treasury,  the  interest  on  it,  at  six 
per  cent,  would  be  $300,000  a  year.  This,  divided  among  the 
individuals  that  compose  the  nation,  would  be  two  cents  a 
piece. 

Wherever  there  is  an  abundance  of  wealth  there  will  be  a 
portion  of  it  not  in  active  use.    We  have  much  excellent  land, 


29 

(the  great  source  of  wealth,)  lying  unfilled.  We  have  houses 
which  are  occasionally  untenanted,  wharves  occasionally  un- 
occupied, ships  occasionally  without  freight.  Such  is  the  na- 
tural effect  of  having  abundance  of  all  things.  The  portion 
of  money  capital  which,  under  a  Sub-Treasury  System,  would 
not  be  every  moment  productive,  would  be  small  when  com- 
pared with  the  portions  of  other  capital  which  would  not  be 
constantly  in  active  employment. 

As  long  ago  as  1828,  the  aggregate  wealth  of  the  nation 
was  estimated  by  political  economists,  at  ten  thousand  million 
dollars.  A  little  pocket  money  is  as  necessary  to  nations  as  to 
individuals ;  and  five  million  dollars  are,  to  a  nation  worth  ten 
thousand  millions,  as  five  dollars  are  to  a  man  worth  ten  thou- 
sand dollars. 

Supposing,  however,  five  millions  too  large  an  amount  to  be 
constantly  in  the  Treasury,  it  may  be  considerably  reduced 
by  substituting  a  warehousing  for  a  debenture  system.  The 
money  now  paid  in,  afterwards  to  be  paid  out  on  account  of 
drawbacks,  would  then  be  left  in  the  hands  of  the  merchants, 
and  the  use  of  it  given  to  those  to  whom  it  properly  belongs. 
The  interests  of  commerce  call  loudly  for  an  extension  of  the 
warehousing  system ;  and  the  call  ought  not  to  be  disregarded, 
especially  since  attention  to  it  would  aid  in  perfecting  our 
fiscal  system. 

In  sober  truth,  however,  the  public  service  will  never,  in 
time  of  peace,  require  us  to  keep  so  large  an  amount  on  hand 
as  seven  millions,  or  even  five  millions,  or  even  three  millions. 
Under  a  Sub-Treasury  System,  our  monthly  payments  may 
be  so  arranged  as  to  be  met  by  our  monthly  receipts;  and  the 
balance  in  all  the  Sub-Treasuries  of  the  Union,  need  seldom 
exceed  one  million  dollars. 

If  any  individual  should,  after  duly  considering  the  subject, 
still  object  to  a  separation  of  the  concerns  of  government  from 
those  of  corporations,  on  the  ground  that  this  policy  would  de- 
prive the  "public  at  large"  of  the  public  funds,  he  may  not, 
perhaps,  expose  himself  to  the  suspicion  of  wishing  to  apply 
the  public  funds  to  his  own  private  uses,  but  he  will  certainly 
commit  the  most  egregious  blunder  of  mistaking  the  bankers 
and  speculators  for  "  the  public  at  large." 


30 

The  next  objection  that  may  be  brought  against  a  Sub- 
Treasury  System  may  be,  that  it  will  be  inconvenient  to  carry 
on  the  fiscal  concerns  of  the  United  States  with  gold  and  silver. 
This  objection  may  be  disposed  of  in  a  few  words. 

Mr.  Raguet  states,  in  one  of  the  numbers  of  his  late  Journal 
of  Political  Economy,  that  he  has  found  by  experiment,  that 
a  clerk  can  count  four  thousand  dollars  an  hour.  A  cashier 
of  a  bank,  to  whom  we  have  applied  for  information,  says, 
much  would  depend  on  the  skill  of  the  clerk,  but  he  should 
look  upon  four  thousand  an  hour  as  very  slow  work.  Another 
gentleman,  who  was  for  some  time  assistant  in  a  bank,  says, 
he  could  "  count  out  gold  as  fast  as  he  could  shell  corn." 

At  the  Sub-Treasury  at  New  York,  where  the  greatest 
amount  of  revenue  would  be  paid  in,  the  receipts  would  pro- 
bably be  between  thirty  thousand  and  forty  thousand  dollars 
a  day,  on  an  average.  Supposing  the  sum  to  be  paid  in  half 
eagles,  the  receiving  clerk,  even  if  he  should  count  but  four 
thousand  an  hour,  would  be  employed  but  two  hours  a  day- 
In  times  of  the  greatest  stress  of  business,  the  receipts  would 
hardly  exceed  one  hundred  thousand  dollars  a  day.  Then  he 
would  be  employed  five  hours. 

Half  eagles  are  here  taken  as  the  basis  of  the  estimate,  be- 
cause there  is  no  doubt  that,  under  the  present  mint  valua- 
tion, considerable  part  of  the  revenue  would  be  paid  in  gold. 
If  silver  should  be  used  to  any  great  extent,  the  labor  of 
counting  would  be  increased.  Then  six  hours  a  day  of  the 
clerk's  time  would  be  occupied  in  counting  the  revenue  at 
New  York. 

The  inconvenience  to  the  receivers  of  the  revenue  would 
certainly  not  be  very  great ;  and  to  payers,  it  would  be  very 
trifling  indeed — for  it  would  be  divided  among  many.  Neither 
payers  nor  receivers  need,  if  they  choose,  undergo  the  labor  of 
counting  large  sums.  Coins,  to  be  a  legal  tender,  must  be 
of  a  certain  weight  and  fineness.  The  value  of  any  given 
mass  of  coins  can  readily  be  ascertained  by  a  hydrostatic 
balance.  Thus  the  operation  of  counting,  which  would  re- 
quire hours,  may  be  superseded  by  that  of  weighing,  which 
would  occupy  only  minutes. 

In  addition  to  this,  it  should  be  considered  that  the  drafts 


31 

which  the  Treasurer  of  the  United  States  would  issue  on  all 
the  Sub-Treasuries  put  together,  would,  in  each  year,  equal, 
or  nearly  equal  the  amount  to  be  paid  in  by  public  debtors 
Those  having  claims  on  any  Sub-Treasuries  might  transfer 
their  drafts  to  those  having  payments  to  make,  and  in  this 
way  large  amounts  might  be  liquidated. 

The  carting  of  silver  from  the  banks  to  the  Land  Offices, 
and  back  again  from  the  Land  Offices  to  the  banks,  has  excit- 
ed much  ridicule.  Under  a  Sub-Treasury  System,  this  cart- 
ing and  re-carting  would  be  unnecessary.  Any  person  who 
wished  to  purchase  a  tract  of  public  land,  might  deposit  his 
silver  or  gold  in  the  nearest  Sub-Treasury,  receive  a  certifi- 
cate for  the  same,  and  pay  in  his  certificate  at  any  Land 
Office  where  he  might  choose  to  make  a  purchase. 

Thus  the  objection  drawn  from  the  inconvenience  of  making 
payments  to  the  government  in  gold  and  silver,  vanishes  on  a 
close  examination. 

A  third  objection  will  probably  be,  that  it  will  be  impossi- 
ble^ so  long  as  the  banks  suspend  specie  payments,  for  debtors 
to  government  to  pay  the  amount  of  their  duty  bonds  in  gold 
and  silver.*  In  support  of  this  objection  it  will  be  urged  that 
a  country  cannot,  at  the  same  time,  have  two  circulating  me- 
diums of  the  same  numerical  denominations,  and  yet  so  totally 
distinct  in  their  nature  as  specie  and  paper.  The  medium  of 
the  less  value,  it  will  be  added,  will  drive  the  medium  of 
the  greater  value  out  of  use. 

In  reply  to  this,  it  may  be  urged,  that  though  the  free  issue 
of  paper  money,  by  banks,  city  governments,  and  private 
dealers,  will  certainly  drive  specie  out  of  general  circulation, 
it  will  not,  unless  the  Constitution  of  the  United  States  be 
violated,  drive  it  all  out  of  the  country.  Gold  and  silver, 
whether  in  the  form  of  bullion  or  coin,  are  merchandise. 
They  always  have  been  merchandise,  and  always  will  be. 
Specie  is  only  merchandise  of  a  peculiar  character.  This  is 
the  merchandise  which  the  government  has  a  lawful  claim  to 
receive,  and  the  merchandise  which  the  merchants  have  en- 
tered into  solemn  stipulations  to  give.  They  can  obtain  it 
from  two  sources.  They  can  exchange  the  merchandise  which 
they  have  in  their  stores,  for  the  gold  and  silver  which  indi- 


32 

viduals  have,  in  the  present  moment  of  panic,  very  prudently 
stored  away  in  their  chests  and  drawers;  or  they  may  send  their 
cotton  and  other  commodities  to  foreign  countries,  and  there- 
with purchase  gold  and  silver.  As  foreign  coins  are  a  legal 
tender  for  customs,  they  need  not  send  such  as  they  import  to 
the  Mint  to  make  them  available  in  the  payment  of  debts  to 
the  government. 

But  it  is  not  necessary  that  an  additional  dollar's  worth  of 
the  precious  metals  should  be  imported  to  enable  the  mer- 
chants to  pay  what  they  owe  to  the  government.  According  to 
the  estimate  of  some  of  our  leading  statesmen,  the  whole 
amount  of  gold  and  silver  coin  in  the  country  is  not  less  than 
eighty  million  dollars.  But  a  small  portion  of  this  will  be  re- 
quisite to  meet  the  demands  of  the  Treasury:  for  what  the  go- 
vernment receives  one  day,  it  will  pay  out  the  next.  In  this 
way,  even  though  all  the  State  Legislatures  shall  support  the 
banks  in  the  suspension  of  specie  payments,  there  will  be  *a 
circulation  of  specie  in  the  country,  though  a  very  limited  one, 
viz :  a  circulation  from  the  public  debtors  to  the  government, 
from  the  government  to  those  having  just  claims  upon  it,  and 
from  the  latter  to  those  with  whom  they  have  dealings,  whence 
it  will  find  its  way  back  to  those  having  payments  to  make  to 
government.  Thus  the  circle  will  be  completed;  and  as  the 
same  pieces  of  coin  may  be  repeatedly  paid  into  the  Treasury 
and  paid  out  again,  the  collection  of  a  revenue  of  twenty  mil- 
lions may  not  require  the  use  of  more  than  five  millions,  per- 
haps not  more  than  two  millions  of  metallic  money. 

When  the  Bank  of  England  suspended  specie  payments 
from  1797  to  1821,  the  government  sanctioned  the  measure. 
Yet  there  never  was  a  time  in  which  gold  and  silver  money 
could  not  be  purchased  in  England,  with  either  bank  notes  or 
merchandise. 

When  the  American  banks  suspended  specie  payments  in 
1814,  the  General  Government  connived  at  their  proceedings, 
and  the  people,  from  patriotic  motives,  endured  the  inconve- 
nience without  much  murmuring.  Yet,  during  that  period, 
specie  could  be  procured  by  all  who  were  willing  to  pay  a  fair 
price  for  it.  Now  the  General  Government  cannot  possibly 
receive  inconvertible  paper,  and  though  the  commercial  classes 


->F  /          33 

N^ALJ    '£&r 

in  large  towns  may  sustain  the  banks  in  their  present  conduct, 
they  will  not  find  their  country  brethren,  the  farmers,  heartily 
co-operating  with  them  in  this  policy. 

There  is  too  much  reason  to  fear  that  the  greater  number 
of  the  State  Legislatures  will  sanction  the  suspension  of  specie 
payments,  and  that  the  city  governments  will  increase  the 
mass  of  paper  money  by  issuing  tickets  for  small  amounts. 
The  tendency  of  these  measures  will  be,  in  the  first  place,  to 
cause  specie  to  be  hoarded,  and  in  the  second,  to  drive  it  out 
of  the  country.  Yet  this  tendency  will,  in  some  degree,  be 
counteracted  by  the  general  feeling  of  the  farmers  in  favor  of 
metallic  money,  and  by  the  inflexible  integrity  of  the  General 
Government  in  refusing  to  sanction  the  deep-laid  project  for 
the  depreciation  of  the  currency.  Through  the  combined 
action  of  the  agricultural  interest  and  of  the  General  Govern- 
ment, it  may  be  hoped,  that  a  larger  amount  of  specie  will  be 
retained  in  the  country  than  was  in  it  during  the  time  of  the 
former  suspension,  and  thus  that  it  may  be  more  easily  pro- 
cured by  those  to  whom  it  is  indispensable. 

Whatever  measures  the  State  Governments  may  adopt 
to  sustain  the  credit  of  their  bankrupt  banks,  they  cannot  be 
more  severe  than  those  which  they  formerly  adopted  to  sustain 
the  credit  of  their  own  paper  money  and  of  continental  money, 
during  the  revolutionary  war.  In  vain  did  they  pass  laws, 
visiting  with  the  severest  penalties  those  dealers  who  made  a 
difference  between  the  paper  and  the  specie  price  of  their 
goods.  The  laws  could  not  be  enforced.  There  were  two 
prices  for  every  thing — a  paper  price  and  a  specie  price. 
And  for  two  or  three  years  near  the  close  of  the  war,  specie 
was  more  abundant  in  the  country  than  it  ever  was  before. 

How  many  of  the  scenes  of  the  old  paper  money  times  are 
to  be  acted  over  again  in  these  modern  days  we  shall  not  ven- 
ture to  predict.  But  one  thing  is  certain,  let  the  State  Go- 
vernments do  what  they  will  to  sustain  the  broken  banks,  and 
let  the  City  Governments  increase  the  mass  of  paper  money 
by  issues  of  small  notes,  they  will  not,  both  together,  be  able 
so  effectually  to  drive  specie  out  of  the  country  as  not  to  leave 
enough  to  serve  the  fiscal  purposes  of  the  General  Govern- 


34 

merit:  and  this  is  the  only  point  of  view  in  which  it  is  herene- 
cessary  to  consider  the  subject. 

But  it  will  probably  be  urged  that,  "  although  the  govern- 
ment might  dispense  with  bank  agency,  still  it  ought  not  to 
do  so,  because  it  will  be  only  through  the  employment  of 
bank  agency  in  some  form  or  other,  that  it  can  prevail  on  the 
banks  generally  to  resume  specie  payments,  and  that  to  effect 
so  desirable  an  object  not  only  the  capital  of  the  government 
should  be  employed,  but  its  credit  should  be  strained  to  its 
utmost  extent." 

In  this  argument  the  friends  of  the  United  States  Bank,  and 
of  the  Deposit  Banks,  will  probably  unite,  however  they  may 
differ  on  other  points.  It  opens  a  wide  field  of  inquiry,  and  no- 
thing that  can  be  said  will  possibly  convince  the  banking  and 
speculating  interests  that  their  argument  is  unsound,  and  for 
this  plain  reason,  viz :  it  is  their  interest  that  the  concerns  of 
government  shall,  in  some  way  or  other,  be  mixed  up  with 
the  concerns  of  corporations  and  of  speculators.  It  may,  how- 
ever, be  briefly  remarked, — 

First.  That  the  banks  are  institutions  incorporated  by  the 
states,  and  it  is  the  duty  of  the  government  and  people  of  each 
state  to  bring  the  institutions  of  that  state  into  order. 

Secondly.  That  from  the  result  of  the  effort  to  put  down 
the  United  States  Bank,  by  the  agency  of  the  Deposit  Banks, 
banks  do  not  appear  to  be  the  best  instruments  in  the  world 
for  bringing  one  another  into  order. 

Thirdly.  That  till  the  United  States  Bank  shall  repay  ta 
government  the  eight  or  nine  millions  for  which  it  stands  in- 
debted, and  till  the  State  Banks  shall  repay  the  thirty  millions 
of  public  money  they  have  received,  neither  the  United  States- 
Bank,  nor  the  State  Banks,  can  be  regarded  as  entitled  to 
further  favors  from  government  in  the  way  of  either  capital 
or  credit.  The  forty  millions  which  the  banks  now  owe  to 
government,  is  so  much  taken  out  of  the  pockets  of  the  tax- 
payers. Would  you  make  that  forty  millions  eighty,  or  would 
you  make  it  one  hundred  and  twenty  1 

Fourthly.  That  the  efficient  cause  of  the  resumption  of 
specie  payments  in  1817,  was  not  the  Bank  of  the  United 
States,  but  the  resolution  of  Congress,  directing  nothing 


35 

but  specie  and  the  notes  of  specie-paying  banks  to  be  re- 
ceived by  collectors  of  public  money.  The  Bank  of  the 
United  States  was  a  mere  instrument  for  carrying  this  reso- 
lution into  effect,  and  an  exceedingly  clumsy  and  ill-worked 
instrument,  which,  by  the  mode  of  its  operation,  did  more  evil 
in  1819  than  it  did  good  in  1817.  The  resumption  of  specie 
payments  could  have  been  effected  better  without  it  than 
with  it. 

Fifthly,  That  it  is  not  expedient  for  the  United  States  Go- 
vernment  to  grapple  with  seven  or  eight  hundred  paper  money 
institutions,  each  wielding  a  gigantic  power.  We  may  think 
ourselves  happy  if  it  escapes  unscathed  from  their  grasp. 
Creating  a  new  National  Bank,  or  a  new  league  of  State 
Banks  to  contend  with  the  "  great  monster"  and  the  troop  of 
"  little  monsters,"  will  only  be  creating  new  enemies  as  much 
lo  be  dreaded  as  those  which  now  exist. 

Sixthly.  That  the  time  in  which  the  banks  in  different  parts 
of  the  country  will  be  able  to  resume  specie  payments,  without 
pressing  too  heavily  on  their  customers,  will  differ  according  to 
circumstances.  Any  direct,  general  action  on  them  might 
do  harm.  The  negative  action  of  having  nothing  to  do  with 
them  is  all  that  is  expedient  in  the  United  States  Government, 
at  this  moment,  to  adopt.  Let  public  opinion  and  the  State 
Legislatures  do  the  rest. 

Arguments  of  this  kind  might  be  multiplied  greatly,  and  if 
no  suitable  answer  could  be  found  to  them,  it  would  then  be 
urged  that,  "  inasmuch  as  the  General  Government  is  itself 
bankrupt,  a  bank  of  some  kind  is  absolutely  necessary  to  re- 
establish its  own  credit."  But  this  is  not  necessary.  The  go- 
vernment's credit  is  not  gone.  It  is  as  sound  as  ever,  and  will 
carry  it  safely  through  the  present  crisis,  unless  the  bankers 
and  speculators  should  again  get  it  into  their  clutches. 

To  reply  to  other  objections,  by  way  of  anticipation,  would 
be  only  to  task  the  ingenuity  of  the  friends  of  paper  money 
in  inventing  new  ones.  Some  will  object  to  the  details  of  the 
method  proposed  in  this  publication  for  carrying  on  the  fiscal 
concerns  of  the  Union.  No  doubt  they  could  be  modified  with 
great  advantage.  The  single  point  of  importance  is  to  sepa- 
rate the  proper  concerns  of  government  from  the  proper 


m 


concerns  of  individuals  and  of  corporations.  Let  this  once 
be  done,  and  a  sound  fiscal  system  cannot  fail  to  be  adopted. 

If  we  have  not  succeeded  to  the  perfect  satisfaction  of  every 
reader,  in  replying  to  all  the  objections  that  may  be  urged 
against  a  Sub-Treasury  System,  we  would  respectfully  ask 
him  if  the  advocates  of  other  systems  have  been  more  success- 
ful ?  There  are  only  three  modes  of  conducting  our  fiscal  con- 
cerns, namely:  through  an  institution  incorporated  by  Con- 
gress, through  institutions  incorporated  by  the  states,  or  by  the 
government's,  and,  consequently,  the  people's  own  officers. 

For  the  true  character  of  the  United  States  Bank,  or  Na- 
tional Bank  System,  see  the  speeches  of  the  members  of  Con- 
gress, and  the  newspapers  friendly  to  the  late  administration. 

For  the  true  character  of  the  Deposit  Bank,  or  State  Bank 
System,  see  the  speeches  of  the  members  of  Congress  and  the 
newspapers  friendly  to  the  opposition. 

For  confirmation  of  the  truth  of  many  of  the  declarations 
of  both  parties,  behold  the  present  condition  of  the  country — • 
a  condition  into  which  it  has  been  brought  by  the  joint  opera^ 
tions  of  the  United  States  Bank  and  of  the  State  Banks.. 


CHAPTER  IV. 

Concluding  Remarks. 

THE  fiscal  system  of  the  United  States,  is,  considered  in  it- 
self, by  no  means  complex.  The  receipts  of  the  government 
are  from  customs,  postages,  fees  to  certain  officers,  and  sales 
of  public  land.  The  payments  are  for  the  support  of  the 
army  and  navy,  and  the  civil  establishment:  for  transactions 
with  the  Indians,  and  pensions  to  revolutionary  soldiers.  Con- 
nected with  these,  are  incidental  receipts  and  expenditures, 
but  they  are,  with  a  few  exceptions,  of  such  a  nature  as  to  be 
appropriately  brought  under  these  general  heads. 

The  postages,  fees  to  marshals,  clerks  of  courts,  &c.,  have 
always  been  collected  with  the  utmost  ease  by  the  officers  of 
government,  and  with  no  other  inconvenience  to  the  tax  payer 
than  that  which  the  paying  of  money  always  occasions. 

The  business  of  disposing  of  the  public  lands  is  as  plain  and 
simple  an  operation  as  can  well  be  imagined. 

The  greater  part  of  the  revenue  from  customs  is  collected  at 
a  few  ports.  The  nett  amount  from  this  source,  in  the  year 
ending  December  31st,  1834,  was  $13,770,736,  of  which 
amount  about  $13,140,000  accrued  at  seven  ports,  viz: 
8,000,000  at  New  York,  2,000,000  at  Boston,  1,300,000  at 
Philadelphia,  800,000  at  New  Orleans,  500,000  at  Baltimore, 
400,000  at  Charleston,  and  140,000  at  Portland.  The  resi- 
due, viz:  8630,000,  was  divided  among  one  hundred  and 
twenty-one  custom  houses. 

Our  business  of  disbursing,  if  we  except  disbursements  on 
the  Indian  frontier,  is  simpler  than  that  of  any  other  General 
Government.  This  is  owing  to  affairs,  properly  local,  being 
in  our  country  the  appropriate  business  of  the  state,  county, 
city,  and  township  authorities.  In  making  disbursements  on  the 


38 

Indian  frontier,  banks  can  afford  us  no  aid.  In  other  places 
we  do  not  want  their  assistance.  Our  fleets  come  to  the  ports 
where  the  greatest  amount  of  revenue  is  collected.  Part  of 
our  little  army  garrison  the  fortifications  which  defend  these 
very  ports.  Great  part  of  the  persons  in  the  employ  of  go- 
vernment live  on  the  very  spots  where  the  revenue  is  received. 
Those  who  live  in  more  remote  places,  would  be  very  happy 
to  receive  orders  for  their  compensation  on  the  principal  Sub- 
Treasuries,  for  they  would  bear  a  premium  as  bills  of  exchange. 

Our  Post  Office  establishment  is  now  so  arranged,  that 
it  may  yield  great  aid  to  the  Treasury  Department.  The 
ramifications  of  our  post  roads  resemble  the  ramifications  of 
the  veins  and  arteries  in  the  human  body.  Every  part  of  the 
country,  no  matter  how  remote,  and  every  place,  no  matter 
how  small,  can  be  reached  through  the  medium  of  the  Post 
Office  establishment.  Through  it  the  government  can  collect 
a  debt  at  any  given  point,  and  pay  a  claim  wherever  due. 

In  point  of  fact,  the  officers  of  government  have  at  all  times 
performed  much  of  the  public  duty  which  the  people  have  sup- 
posed was  performed  for  them  by  the  banks.  The  business  of 
collecting  and  disbursing  has  almost  every  where  been  per- 
formed by  the  officers  of  government,  and  for  the  proper  dis- 
charge of  these  duties  they  have  always  been  held  responsi- 
ble. The  business  of  safe  keeping  the  public  funds,  and  trans- 
mitting certain  amounts  from  place  to  place,  is  all  that  the 
banks  have  done,  (except  when  acting  as  agents  for  collecting 
and  disbursing  officers,)  and  all  for  which  they  have  been  held 
responsible.  In  some  of  the  points  where  the  public  money  has 
been  most  exposed,  as,  for  example,  at  the  remote  Land  Offices, 
the  safe  keeping  of  it  has  devolved  entirely  on  the  officers  of 
government ;  and  the  transmission  of  money,  where  attended 
with  most  danger  and  expense,  has,  as  observed  in  another 
place,  been  generally  performed  at  the  risk  and  cost  of  the' 
government. 

A  Sub-Treasury  System  is  not  something  absolutely  new. 
We  have  one  at  this  moment.  We  always  have  had  one. 
Every  Land  Office  has  been,  in  a  certain  sense,  a  Sub-Trea- 
sury ;  for  public  money  has  been  received  there,  kept  there, 
and  some  public  claims  discharged  there.  The  same  is  true 


39 

of  many  of  the  Post  Offices  and  Custom  Houses.  But  our  pre- 
sent system,  owing  to  the  dependence  we  have  placed  on 
banks,  wants  that  congruity,  uniformity,  and  centralization, 
which  is  desirable,  and  many  of  the  safeguards  which  are 
almost  indispensable.  But  let  it  once  be  determined  that 
the  proper  concerns  of  government  shall  be  separated  from 
the  private  concerns  of  corporations  and  individuals,  and 
surely  the  combined  wisdom  of  Congress,  the  Executive,  and 
the  people  put  together,  will  be  able  to  devise  some  means  by 
which  to  effect  so  very  simple  an  object  as  collecting,  secur- 
ing, and  disbursing,  the  public  money. 

Through  the  separation  of  public  from  private  affairs,  the 
public  officers  will  be  the  better  able  to  watch  over  the  public 
concerns,  and  the  public  at  large  the  better  able  to  watch  the 
conduct  of  the  public  officers.  Increased  economy  in  every 
department  of  government  will  be  the  consequence. 

For  the  welfare  of  the  country,  it  is  absolutely  essential  that 
the  fiscal  operations  of  the  United  States  be  placed  on  such 
a  basis  that  they  may  be  embarrassed  as  little  as  possible  by 
the  doings  of  banks  and  speculators. 

A  Sub-Treasury  System  is  the  common  sense  system.  It 
is  the  system  which  would  naturally  suggest  itself  to  every 
man  who  would  set  down  to  consider  the  subject  free  from 
prejudice.  Yet  it  is  matter  of  doubt  whether  it  will  be  adopt- 
ed, and  for  one  plain  reason — it  will  aid  no  ma?i's  private 
speculations.  Both  earth  and  hell  will,  at  the  next  session  of 
Congress,  be  put  in  commotion  to  advance  the  views  of  the 
speculators,  and  while  common  sense  is  cast  behind  the  back, 
common  justice  will  be  trampled  under  foot. 

The  banking  interest  exercises  an  influence  in  this  country 
similar  to  that  which  the  landed  interest  exercises  in  Great 
Britain.  Their  number,  fairly  told,  may  not  exceed  one 
hundred  and  fifty  thousand  men,  but  with  their  women  and 
children,  and  their  dependents  of  all  kinds,  they  may  amount 
to  one  million  five  hundred  thousand,  or  one-tenth  part  of  the 
nation.  It  -would  seem  at  first  sight  as  if  there  was  little  dan- 
ger to  be  apprehended  of  one-tenth  part  of  the  nation  having 
more  influence  in  its  general  councils  than  the  other  nine- 
tenths.  But  this  danger  does  exist.  The  bankers  and  specu- 


40 

lators  are  the  most  powerful  men  in  the  country.  They  have 
at  this  very  moment  enclosed  some  members  of  Congress  within 
their  drag-net,  and  will  make  a  wide  sweep  to  catch  as  many 
more  as  they  can.  They  are  leagued  together  by  a  common 
principle  of  interest,  a  tie  far  stronger  than  parchment  bonds. 
They  command  nearly  all  the  daily,  and  the  greater  number 
of  the  weekly  papers,  those  powerful  instruments  for  good  or 
evil.  They  control  the  principal  city  governments.  Their 
influence  is  felt  in  every  State  Legislature.  Many  of  them 
are  men  of  great  powers  of  mind.  They  write  with  ability, 
and  speak  with  eloquence.  Not  a  few  of  them  are,  moreover, 
very  estimable  men  in  most  of  the  relations  of  life. 

Such  an  influence  as  this  must  naturally  and  necessarily 
exercise  great  influence  in  the  councils  of  the  nation.  And 
if  the  people  do  not  stand  forth,  and  in  their  primary  assem- 
blies support  those  members  of  Congress  who  support  the 
people's  interest,  the  conflict  in  both  the  Senate  Chamber  and 
the  House  of  Representatives  may  be  very  doubtful. 

A  stop-law  in  favor  of  the  banks  has  been  passed  by  the 
Legislature  of  New  York.  The  stop-laws  passed  by  Kentucky 
and  other  western  states  have  been  standing  themes  of  re- 
proach* But  the  stop-laws  of  the  west  had  for  their  ostensi- 
ble object,  the  relief  of  the  injured.  The  stop-law  of  New 
York  is  for  the  benefit  of  the  injurers.  The  banking  interest 
throughout  the  country  will  make  strenuous  efforts  to  have 
laws,  similar  in  character  to  that  of  New  York,  enacted  by 
every  State  Legislature. 

Nor  will  they  stop  here.  They  will  make  every  exertion 
to  compel  Congress  to  make  paper  money  of  some  kind'  the 
legal  currency  of  the  country. 

Stop-laws  in  favor  of  banks  will  soon  require  stop-laws  in 
favor  of  individuals.  Then  the  history  of  Kentucky,  from  1818 
to  1828,  will  be  the  history  of  the  whole  United  States  to 
future  generations. 

In  this  alarming  state  of  things,  a  writer,  from  whom  better 
things  might  have  been  expected,  has  exhorted  the  people  to 
make  the  United  States  Bank  their  rallying  point.  Let  theirral- 
lying  point  rather  be  the  Constitution  of  the  United  States,  and 
the  laws  of  the  same  and  of  the  different  states  enacted  in  con- 


41 

fortuity  thereto.  The  Constitution  of  the  United  States  de- 
clares that  no  state  "  shall  coin  money,  emit  bills  of  credit, 
make  any  thing  but  gold  and  silver  coin  a  tender  in  payment 
of  debts,  pass  any  law  impairing  the  obligations  of  contracts, 
or  grant  any  title  of  nobility."  A  fundamental  law  of  the 
United  States  declares  that  duties  and  fees  shall  be  received 
in  "  gold  and  silver  coin  only. " 

If  the  Constitution  of  the  United  States  be  preserved  invio- 
late, and  the  fundamental  laws  of  the  country  left  untouched, 
all  will  at  last  come  right.  If  the  opposite  course  be  pursued, 
injustice  will  triumph  in  a  thousand  ways,  and  such  a  state  of 
society  be  produced,  that  thousands  of  men  will  throw  aside 
even  the  mere  pretension  to  honesty. 

Considerations  of  temporary  expediency  as  well  as  those  of 
lasting  benefit,  require  that  we  should  continue  in  force  the 
laws  which  make  gold  and  silver  the  only  legal  currency 
of  the  United  States.  Bank  paper  will,  probably,  for  a  time, 
be  the  principal  commercial  medium.  It  is  desirable  to  have 
a  standard  by  which  we  may  be  able  to  determine  the  degree 
in  which  the  paper  of  different  parts  of  the  country  depreciates. 
During  the  last  war  we  had  such  a  standard,  for  then  the 
banks  of  New  England  continued  specie  payments,  and  the  rate 
of  exchange  in  favor  of  Boston,  showed,  after  making  the  neces- 
sary deduction  for  the  cost  of  transporting  specie,  the  degree 
of  depreciation  of  notes  in  various  parts  of  the  Union.  Now 
the  stoppage  of  specie  payments  is  universal,  and  quotations 
of  the  prices  at  which  bank  notes  are  sold  at  different  places, 
will  afford  no  certain  index  to  ttieir  degree  of  depreciation* 
Two  things,  totally  distinct  in  themselves,  will  be  confounded 
together,  viz :  the  simple  rate  of  commercial  exchange  and 
the  depreciation  of  paper  money.  Let,  however,  the  United 
States  Government  continue  to  demand  specie  at  all  the 
Custom  Houses,  all  the  Land  Offices,  all  the  Post  Offices,  and 
wherever  else  it  collects  a  claim,  and  there  will  be,  in  every 
part  of  the  country,  a  standard  by  which  the  exact  deprecia- 
tion of  bank  notes  can  be  determined.  The  notes  of  every  bank 
will  vary  in  value  according  to  their  distance  from  the  place 
where  issued,  and  according  to  a  multitude  of  other  circum- 
stances. Yet  trade  may  be  carried  on,  with  this  most  objec- 


42 

tionable  medium,  with  some  slight  approximations  to  fairness, 
provided  only  we  have  a  standard  to  which  to  refer  the  depre- 
ciation of  the  paper  of  each  bank  at  different  times  and  places. 
If,  for  example,  the  bank  currency  of  Mississippi  should  de- 
preciate twenty  per  cent,  below  the  bank  currency  of  Phila- 
delphia, the  merchant  of  Mississippi  must  add  twenty  per  cent, 
to  the  price  of  his  goods  in  order  that  what  he  receives  on  his 
sales  may  enable  him  to  pay  for  his  purchases. 

If  the  United  States  Government  shall  resolutely  continue 
to  demand  specie  in  payment  of  its  claims,  there  will  be  a  cir- 
culation of  specie  in  the  country,  though  to  a  very  small  amount, 
and  in  a  very  little  circle.  But  if  it  perseveres  in  this  course, 
one  little  circle  of  this  kind  will  be  added  to  another,  till  at 
length  they  will  overspread  the  whole  country.  Any  city  or 
town  government  that  chooses  can,  within  one  week,  or  at 
furthest  within  one  month,  make  silver  the  circulating  medium 
within  its  own  limits  for  all  amounts  less  than  one  dollar.  To 
do  this  it  has  only  to  call  in  its  change  tickets,  and  compel  the 
associations  and  individuals  who  have  issued  the  like  currency 
to  forbear  further  violations  of  the  laws  in  this  respect  provid- 
ed. That,  in  the  panic  produced  by  the  bankruptcy  of  the 
banks,  silver  change  should  disappear,  was  natural.  But  it 
would  have  reappeared  within  one  week,  if  the  city  govern- 
ments, and  other  violators  of  the  laws  of  the  states,  had  not 
taken  the  most  effectual  means  to  banish  even  copper  from 
circulation  by  their  abundant  issues  of  paper. 

Every  state  within  the  Union  can,  in  no  very  long  time, 
make  gold  and  silver  the  medium  for  paying  wages,  and  the 
general  medium  of  retail  trade.  It  can  do  this  by  first  pro- 
hibiting, under  such  penalties  as  shall  be  effective,  the  issue  of 
all  notes  for  less  than  two  dollars,  where  notes  so  small  have 
actually  been  used,  and  gradually  rising  to  those  of  higher  de- 
nominations. In  this  way,  each  state  acting  for  itself,  a  gene- 
ral resumption  of  specie  payments  may  be  effected,  with  much 
less  inconvenience  than  would  be  possible  if  the  General  Go- 
vernment should  attempt  to  act  directly  on  the  State  Banks, 
or  establish  a  National  Bank  to  regulate  the  paper  money 
institutions  throughout  the  country. 

The  state  which  shall  first  undertake  this  work  will  perform 


43 

it  with  the  greatest  ease,  for  it  will  draw  great  part  of  the 
necessary  supply  from  the  adjoining  states. 

Measures  of  this  kind  would  quickly  draw  out  a  part  of  the 
specie  that  has  been  hoarded,  and  enough  gold  would  probably 
be  brought  into  circulation  to  pay  travelling  expenses.  If  the 
eighty  millions  now  in  the  country  will  not  suffice,  we  can 
easily  add  eighty  millions  more.  Every  tyro  in  political  eco- 
nomy knows,  that  an  efficient  demand  ensures  a  supply.  He  also 
knows,  or  ought  to  know,  that  while  abundant  issues  of  paper 
cause  specie  to  flow  out  of  a  country,  destroying  the  paper 
causes  specie  to  flow  in.  This  is  the  way  to  create  an  efficient 
demand  for  gold  and  silver,  and  of  all  demands  it  is  the  one 
which  is  most  readily  met.  Light  of  carriage  and  small  in 
bulk,  when  compared  with  their  value,  the  precious  metals  defy 
all  the  political  regulations  which  are  intended  to  prevent 
their  obeying  the  laws  of  effective  demand.  They  flow  into 
a  country  where  such  effective  demand  exists  as  naturally  as 
the  waters  of  rivers  flow  into  the  sea.  And  they  flow  in  from 
all  quarters.  If  we  want  teas  we  can  procure  them  with  ad- 
vantage only  from  China.  If  we  want  British  broad  cloths  we 
can  get  them  only  from  England.  But  if  we  create  an  efficient 
demand  for  gold  and  silver  in  the  United  States,  every  commer- 
cial country  will  contribute  a  portion  of  the  supply.  With- 
draw your  paper  money,  and  the  precious  metals  will  flow  in 
from  Mexico  and  South  America,  from  the  West  Indies,  from 
England,  from  France,  from  Holland,  from  the  East  Indies, 
and  from  China. 

Within  the  limits  of  a  pamphlet,  it  is  impossible  to  set  forth 
all  the  advantages  that  will  arise,  both  directly  and  indirectly, 
from  completely  separating  the  fiscal  concerns  of  the  United 
States  from  the  affairs  of  corporations  and  of  individuals.  Equal- 
ly impossible  is  it  to  depict  all  the  evils  which  will  follow,  if  the 
United  States  Government  shall,  by  means  of  any  credit  money 
institution  or  institutions,  whether  created  by  itself  or  by  the 
states,  endeavor  to  remedy  the  evils  produced  by  our  existing 
banks. 

Let  there  be  no  more  efforts  to  cast  out  devils  by  Beelzebub, 
the  prince  of  devils.  We  have  been  quite  long  enough  at  this 
kind  of  work  already.  We  have  made  two  efforts  to  regulate 


44 

credit  and  currency  by  means  of  State  Banks,  and  two  by 
means  of  United  States  Banks.  All  these  have  failed, 
as  is  proved  by  every  year  in  the  country's  history  since 
the  establishment  of  the  old  Bank  of  North  America. 
Credit  and  currency  have  never  been  sound  with  us, 
though  in  some  years  they  have  appeared  to  be  so,  because  in 
those  years  they  were  less  unsound  than  in  others.  Yet  hardly 
has  an  interval  of  three  years  elapsed,  since  the  close  of  the 
revolutionary  war,  without  manifesting  in  a  striking  way  the 
tendency  of  our  banking  system  to  produce  disorders  in  com- 
merce, and  confusion  in  the  various  operations  of  society.  To 
be  silent  in  regard  to  other  epochs,  there  were  the  troubles  in 
1807,  under  the  cincien  regime,  or  that  of  the  first  United 
States  Bank.  Then  there  were  the  troubles  from  1814  to 
1817  under  the  State  Banks.  Then  there  were  the  troubles 
from  1819  onwards,  under  the  second  United  States  Bank — 
troubles  which  were  not  surmounted,  in  some  of  the  western 
states,  till  the  year  1828.  Then  there  were  the  panics  of 
1825,  1828,  and  1834,  and  lastly,  here  is  the  present  tremen- 
dous convulsion  of  1837. 

If  the  history  of  our  own  country  will  not  suffice  to  convince 
us  of  the  folly  of  all  such  attempts,  let  us  look  abroad.  England 
has  for  many  years  been  trying  to  regulate  credit  and  currency 
by  means  of  banking  institutions,  with  no  better  success  than 
ourselves.  If  that  all-powerful  government,  with  so  mighty 
an  instrument  to  work  with  as  the  Bank  of  England,  has  not 
been  able,  in  that  small  country  where  every  thing  favors 
such  a  design,  to  prevent  the  most  ruinous  convulsions,  what 
ground  have  we  to  build  a  hope  upon,  where  we  have  twenty- 
six  State  Governments  seldom  acting  in  concert,  and  a  General 
Government  whose  powers  are  strictly,  and  very  properly, 
limited  to  a  few  objects. 

A  singular  train  of  decisions,  which  may  by  future  ages  be 
regarded  as  evidence  of  the  influence  of  the  banking  interest 
reaching  even  to  the  Judiciary,  makes  it  a  matter  of  dispute 
whether  the  United  States  Government  possesses  any  currency- 
regulating  power,  by  direct  grant,  using  the  word  currency 
in  so  wide  a  sense  as  to  include  the  notes  of  banks  chartered 
by  the  states.  Be  this  as  it  may,  that  power  has  been  usurped 


45 

by  the  states,  and  cannot  now  be  resumed.  All  that  remains 
for  the  United  States  Government  now  to  do  is  to  separate  its 
own  fiscal  affairs,  at  once  and  forever,  from  the  affairs  of  cor- 
porations and  of  individuals.  If  by  so  doing  it  regulates  the 
currency,  it  does  so  by  a  negative  rather  than  a  positive  ac- 
tion. It  simply  withdraws  the  sanction  it  has  heretofore  given 
to  paper  money  and  money  corporations,  and  the  aid  it  has 
yielded  them  in  their  mischievous  operations  by  lending  them 
its  capital  and  its  credit. "  It  leaves  both  the  states  and  the 
people  to  act  in  regard  to  this  important  matter  as  they  shall 
deem  best. 

The  simple  question  now  submitted  to  the  people  is,  whether 
the  laws  and  Constitution  of  the  United  States  shall  be  pre- 
served inviolate,  or  whether  they  shall  be  trampled  under  foot. 
It  ought  not  to  be  a  party  question.  All  ought  to  unite  to  pre- 
vent any  thing  but  gold  and  silver  being  a  legal  tender  to 
either  the  United  States  or  to  private  persons,  and  to  put  this 
matter  beyond  doubt  or  danger,  it  will  be  necessary  to  separate 
for  ever  the  proper  concerns  of  the  government  from  the  pro- 
per concerns  of  corporations  and  of  individuals. 

One  party  has  made  trial  of  United  States  Banks,  and  the 
other  of  State  Banks.  Let  each  be  content  with  the  result  of 
its  experiment.  One  party  is,  (to  use  a  common  phrase,) 
committed  on  the  subject  of  a  National  Bank  as  a  fiscal 
agent,  and  the  other  on  the  subject  of  State  Deposit  Banks. 
In  relation  to  a  Sub-Treasury  System,  neither  party  has  com- 
mitted itself.  Here,  then,  is  a  ground  on  which  both  can 
honorably  unite  and  strive  which  can  do  most  to  promote  the 
country's  good.  Many  of  the  most  distinguished  men  of  both 
parties  have  at  times  expressed  sentiments  having  a  friendly 
bearing  towards  such  a  system. 

The  friends  of  State  Rights  ought  to  be  warm  in  support  of 
it.  While  it  avoids  the  difficulties  which  the  incorporation  of 
any  kind  of  national  bank  must  present,  it  leaves  to  the  states 
the  entire  control  of  the  institutions  of  their  own  creation. 

The  friends  of  domestic  industry  should  be  amongst  the 
foremost  in  maintaining  that  nothing  but  gold  and  silver  should 
be  received  in  payment  of  duties.  Without  this,  no  tariff  that 
can  be  adopted  will  be  "  protective." 


46 

Whether  the  principle  of  protecting  duties  is  right  or  wrong 
need  not  here  be  discussed.  The  friends  of  free  trade  may 
postpone  their  efforts  to  give  us  a  perfectly  unrestricted  com- 
merce with  foreign  nations,  till  we  have  something  like  fair 
trade  among  ourselves.  This  fair  trade  we  cannot  have, 
unless  we  have  some  standard  by  which  to  determine  the  de- 
preciation of  bank  notes  in  different  parts  of  the  country. 

The  foes  to  an  increase  of  Executive  patronage  ought  to 
come  out  manfully  in  behalf  of  a  Sub-Treasury  System.  The 
few  officers  it  will  require,  will  all  be  appointed  with  the  con- 
currence of  the  Senate :  and  the  economy  and  method  it  will 
introduce  into  different  branches  of  the  public  service,  will 
render  practicable  a  reduction  of  the  whole  number  of  per- 
sons in  the  employ  of  government. 

Those  who  are  fearful  of  the  public  money  being  used  to 
increase  offical  influence,  should  be  most  active  in  endeavoring 
to  separate  entirely  the  proper  concerns  of  government  from 
those  of  corporations  and  of  individuals.  The  mooted  points, 
whereis  the  Treasury  of  the  United  States,  andwhat  is  money 
in  the  Treasury,  will  then  be  settled.  Not  a  dollar  in  any  one 
of  the  Sub-Treasuries  can  be  drawn  out  except  according  to 
appropriations  made  by  law.  A  Sub-Treasurer  will  not  dare 
to  touch  even  the  amount  of  his  own  salary,  except  upon  war- 
rant from  the  Secretary  of  the  Treasury,  revised  by  the  Comp- 
trollers, countersigned  by  the  Treasurer,  and  recorded  by  the 
Register,  agreeably  to  the  provisions  of  the  existing  laws. 

Seeing,  then, — 

That  a  National  Bank,  powerful  enough  to  regulate  the  State 
Banks,  would,  if  independent  of  the  government,  be  powerful 
enough  to  crush  both  the  government  and  the  people,  and,  if 
under  the  control  of  the  government,  would  make  the  President 
the  most  powerful  monarch  on  earth : 

That  a  league  of  State  Banks,  powerful  enough  to  regulate 
all  the  others,  would  be  only  another  form  of  the  same  evil : 

That  the  fiscal  concerns  of  the  United  States  can  be  con- 
ducted with  ease  and  with  safety,  without  the  agency  of  any 
bank,  and  without  the  use  of  any  kind  of  bank  paper  : 

That  by  the  United  States  Government's  receiving  only  gold 
and  silver  in  payment  of  dues,  there  will  be  a  standard  by 


47 

which  the  depreciation  of  bank  notes,  at  different  times  and 
different  places,  can  be  readily  determined : 

That  this  policy  will  lead  to  a  gradual  resumption  of  specie 
payments  in  the  mildest  way  in  which  it  is  possible  to  effect  so 
desirable  an  object : 

That  after  the  banks  shall  resume  specie  payments  it  will 
be  a  constant  check  "  on  the  constant  tendency  of  banks  to 
lend  too  much  and  to  put  too  many  notes  in  circulation :" 

That  it  does  not  interfere  in  any  way  with  State  Rights,  but 
leaves  to  each  state  the  entire  control  of  the  institutions  of  its 
own  creation : 

That  without  it  no  tariff  can  afford  adequate  protection  to 
domestic  industry : 

That  without  it  we  cannot  have  fair  trade  among  our- 
selves, without  which  free  trade  with  foreigners  will  avail  but 
little: 

And  lastly,  that  it  will  ultimately  diminish  Executive  pa- 
tronage, and  prevent  the  very  possibility  of  the  public  money's 
being  used  to  increase  official  influence : 

Seeing  all  this, — 

Let  us  all,  with  one  accord,  rally,  not  around  the  United 
States  Bank,  nor  yet  around  the  Deposit  Banks,  but  around 
the  Constitution  of  the  United  States.  Let  us  all,  with- 
out distinction  of  party,  be  in  this  respect  as  one  man :  and  let 
a  leading  principle  of  our  policy  be, 

AN  ENTIRE  SEPARATION,  NOW,  HENCEFORTH,  AND  FOR  EVER, 
OF  THE  FISCAL  CONCERNS  OF  THE  UNITED  STATES,  FROM  THE 
PROPER  AND  PRIVATE  CONCERNS  OF  INDIVIDUALS  AND  OF  COR- 
PORATIONS. 


APPENDIX 


The  following  tables  and  notes  have  been  extracted  from 
a  document  sent  to  the  House  of  Representatives,  by  the 
Secretary  of  the  Treasury,  on  the  12th  of  December,  1834, 
and  referred  by  that  House  to  the  Committee  of  Ways  and 
Means,  on  the  15th  of  the  same  month.  The  amounts  stated 
are  in  part  estimates,  as  full  returns  for  the  last  quarter  of 
1834  had  not  then  been  received:  but  they  are  sufficiently 
accurate  for  the  purposes  of  illustration.  They  show,  in  a 
general  way,  where  the  revenue  of  the  United  States  is  col- 
lected, where  it  is  expended,  for  what  objects  it  is  ex- 
pended, and  what  amount  of  public  money  it  is  neces- 
sary to  transmit  from  one  part  of  the  country  to  another. 


50 

A  TABLE  of  the  whole  appropriations  for  the  year  1834,  of  the  expendi- 
tures from  them,  and  of  the  collections  during  that  year  in  the  several 
States  and  Territories. 


Whole  appropriations 
for  1834.* 


Expenditures   from 
ihem  in  1834. 


Collections  in  1834. 


VERMONT. 


Special,f 
Pensions, 
Army, 
Miscellaneous, 


$20,000 

200,000 

2,000 

10,000 


232,000 

Deduct  20  per  ct. 
not  expended 
this  year.*  46,400 


Balance,     $185,600 


Customs, 


$179 


Special, 
Pensions, 
Army  and  forti- 
fications, 
Miscellaneous, 
Public  debt, 


38,000 
180,000 

60,000 
30,000 
20,000 


348,000 
Deduct  as  above,  69,600 


HEW  HAMPSHIRE. 


Balance,       278,400 


Customs, 


174,754 


Special, 
Pensions, 


42,000 
160,000 


*  Besides  the  appropriations  made  for  the  year  1834,  there  was  a  balance  of  old 
appropriations  unexpended  of  about  six  millions ;  and,  besides  the  collections  made  in 
1834,  there  was  an  available  balance  in  the  Treasury  on  the  1st  January,  1834,  of 
about  ten  millions,  being  more  than  enough  to  pay  the  old  appropriations  then  out- 
standing. The  actual  expenditures  in  1834,  out  of  the  appropriations  for  that  year, 
correspond  so  nearly  with  the  collections  in  1834,  that  they  illustrate  the  objects  pro- 
posed in  this  table,  without  extending  it  to  the  old  appropriations  or  collections  made 
before  January,  1834,  and  then  remaining  unexpended. 

t  The  apportionment  of  the  several  appropriations  among  the  States  and  Territories 
has  been  made  in  conformity  to  what  was  specified  in  the  acts  of  Congress,  and  the 
estimates  for  the  year,  and  are  termed  "  special"  whenever  the  person  or  object,  such 
as  a  creditor,  fort,  officer,  navy  yard,  &c.  was  known  to  be  within  any  State.  The 
other  designations  need  no  explanation,  except  that  under  army,  navy,  fyc.,  are  not  in- 
eluded  such  sums  in  connexion  with  them  as  were  before  included  under  the  word 
** special ;"  and  that  our  expenditures  abroad  are  arranged  to  the  States  whence  the 
remittances  are  made ;  and  that  the  payments  required  to  be  made  in  particular  States 
for  the  public  convenience,  though  the  objects  of  expenditure  are  situated  elsewhere, 
have  been  charged  to  those  States.  The  word  "  army"  includes  every  thing  under  the 
administration  of  the  War  Department,  except  what  is  otherwise  enumerated. 

t  It  is  estimated  that  about  five  millions  of  the  appropriations  made  for  1834  will  not 
be  expended  within  that  year,  and  hence  the  deduction  has  been  made  of  twenty  per 
cent.,  or  about  the  sum  of  five  millions,  for  the  present  year.  The  amount  of  collections 
is  made  up  from  actual  returns  for  the  first  three  quarters  of  this  year,  and  from  esti- 
mates for  the  fourth  quarter,  which  will  probably  prove  very  near  the  true  result. 


51 


TABLE— Continued. 


Whole  appropriations 
for  1834. 


Army,         -  $16,000 

Miscellaneous,  10,000 

Navy,  140,000 

Public  debt,  50,000 

418,000 

Deduct  20  per  ct. 
not  expended 
this  year,  83,600 


MASSACHUSETTS. 

Special,  496,000 

Pensions,  350,000 

Army,  370,000 

Miscellaneous,  100,000 

Public  debt,  300,000 

Navy,  350,000 

1,966,000 
Ded.  as  above,    393,200 


RHODE  ISLAND. 

Special,  116,000 

Pensions,  75,000 

Army,  110,000 

Miscellaneous,  40,000 

Public  debt,  30,000 

Navy,  10,000 

381,000 
Deduct  as  above,  76,200 


CONNECTICUT. 

Special,  15,000 

Pensions,  200,000 

Army,  60,000 

Miscellaneous,  10,000 

Public  debt,  20,000 

305,000 
Deduct  as  above,  61,000 


Expenditures  from 
them  in  1834. 


Balance,     $334,400 


Balance,    1,572,800 


Balance,      304,800 


Balance,       244,000 


Eastern,  $2,920,000 


Collections  in  1834. 


Customs, 


$16,373 


Customs, 


2,590,572 


Customs, 


119,140 


Customs, 


47,890 
$2,948,908 


52 

TABLE— -Continued. 


Whole  appropriations 
for  1834. 


Expenditures  from 
them  in  1834. 


Collections  in  1834. 


NEW  YORK. 

Special,  $662,000 

Pensions,  700,000 

Army,  500,000 

Miscellaneous,    100,000 
Navy,  500,000 

Public  debt,     2,000,000 
Foreign  inter- 
course, 100,000 

4,562,000 
Deduct  20  per  ct. 
not  expended 
this  year,        912,400 


NEW  JERSEY. 

Special,  6,000 

Pensions,  110,000 

Miscellaneous,      20,000 

136,000 
Deduct  as  above,  27,200 


PENNSYLVANIA. 

Special,  424,000 
Pensions,  250,000 
Miscellaneous,  60,000 
Army,  700,000 
Navy,  160,000 
Public  debt,  1,800,000 
Foreign  inter- 
course, 100,000 


3,494,000 


Ded.  as  above, 


DELAWARE. 

Special,  36,00( 

Pensions,  5,00 

Army,  150,00 

Miscellaneous  10,00( 

201,00 
Deduct  as  above,  40,20 


MARYLAND. 

Special,  48,00 

Pensions,  40,00 


Balance,  $3,649,600 


Customs, 


$9,021,491 


Balance,        108,000 


Customs, 


8,653 


Balance,     2,795,20 


Customs, 


2,058,641 


Balance,        160,80 


Customs, 


13,261 


53 
TABLE— Continued. 


Whole  appropriations 
for  1834. 


Army,  $1,300,000 

Navy,  80,000 

Miscellaneous,      50,000 
Public  debt,        200,000 

1,718,000 

Ded.  20  per  ct. 

not  expended 

this  year.        343,600 


DISTniCT  OF  COLUMBIA 

Spec.  &  civil,  2,013,000 
Pensions,  11,000 

Navy,  400,000 

Army  &  Indians  550,000 
Debt,  250,000 

Miscellaneous,    500,000 
Foreign  inter- 
course, 100,000 


3,824,000 
Ded.  as  above,    764,800 


Expenditures  from 
them  in  1834. 


Balance,     1,374,400 


Balance,     3,059,200 


Middle,  $11,148,000 


Collections  in  1834. 


Customs, 


$589,778 


Customs,        $33,473 
Miscellaneous,  550,000 

583,473 

$12,275,297 


VIRGINIA. 

Special,  $500,000 

Pensions,  200,000 

Miscellaneous,      50,000 
Army,  1,075,000 

Navy,  1,000,000 


2,825,000 
Ded.  as  above,    565,000 


NORTH  CAROLINA. 

Special,  37,000 

Pensions,  100,000 

Army,  20,000 

Miscellaneous,  20,000 

177,000 
Deduct  as  above    35,400 


SOUTH  CAROLINA. 

Special,  51,000 

Pensions,  50,000 


Balance,  $2,260,000 


Customs, 


#140,161 


Balance,        141,600 


lustoms, 


34,884 


54 
TABLE— Continued. 


Whole  appropriations 
for  1834. 


Expenditures  from 
them  in  1834. 


Collections  in  1834. 


Public  debt,  $50,000 

Navy,  30,000 

Miscellaneous,  50,000 

Army,  200,000 

431,000 

Deduct  20  per  ct. 
not  expended 
this  year,  86,200 


GEORGIA. 

Special,  180,000 

Pensions,  40,060 

Army,  140,000 

Miscellaneous,  20,000 

Navy,  20,000 

Indians,  20,000 

420,000 
Deduct  as  above,  84,000 


LOUISIANA. 

Special,  120,000 

Pensions,  6,000 

Army  &  Indians  180,000 
Miscellaneous,      40,000 


Balance,     $344,800 


Balance,       336,000 


346,000 
Deduct  as  above,  69,200 


MISSISSIPPI. 
Special,  12,000 

Pensions,  2,000 

Army  &  Indians  292,000 
Miscellaneous,      10,000 

316,000 
Deduct  as  above,  63,200 


ALABAMA. 

Special,  18,000 

Pensions,  20,000 

Army  &  Indians  3 1 6,00( 
Miscellaneous,      20,000 

374,000 
Deduct  as'above,  74,800 


Balance,       276,800 


Customs,  $303,835 


Customs, 


48,260 


Customs,  $817,230 
Lands,         187,727 


1,004,957 


Balance,       252,800 


Lands, 


1,621,785 


Balance,       299,200 


Lands,      $674,641 
Customs,       46,659 


721,300 


55 

TABLE— Continued. 


Whole  appropriations 
for  1834. 


Expenditures  from 
them  in  1834. 


Collections  in  1834. 


FLORIDA. 

Special,  $205,000 

Navy,  150,000 

Army,  50,000 

405,000 

Deduct  20  per  ct. 
not  expended 
this  year,  81,000 


Balance,      $324,000 

South  and 
southwest 


Customs,      $1,800 
Lands,  1,000 


—     $2,800 
$3,277,982 


TENNESSEE. 

Special,  $500 

Pensions,  110,000 

Army,  24,000 

Indians,  250,000 

384,500 
Deduct  as  above,  76,900 


KENTUCKY. 

Special,  30,000 

Pensions,  180,000 

Army,  150,000 

Miscellaneous,  10,000 

370,000 
Deduct  as  above,  74,000 

OHIO. 

Special,  282,000 

Pensions,  125,000 

Miscellaneous,  40,000 

Army,  145,000 

Indians,  120,000 

712,000 
Deduct  as  above,  142,400 


INDIANA. 

Special,  163,000 

Pensions,  48,000 

Miscellaneous.      10,000 

221,000 
Deduct  as  above,  44,200 


Balance,      $307,600 


Balance,        296,000 


Balance,        569,600 


Customs,      $1,985 
Lands,        431,448 


433,433 


Balance,        176,800 


Lands, 


667,167 


;i    UNIVERSITY 

OF 


56 

TABLE — Continued . 


Whole  appropriations 


for  1834. 


ILLINOIS. 

Special,  $140,00 

Pensions,  18,00 

Army,  10,00 

Miscellaneous,      10,00 

178,00 

Deduct  20  per  ct. 
not  expended 
this  year,  35,60( 

MISSOURI. 
Special,  80,00( 

Pensions,  18,OOC 

Army,  450,000 

Indians,  250,000 

Miscellaneous,      20,OOC 

818,000 
Bed.  as  above,    163,600 

MICHIGAN. 

Special,  110,000 

Pensions,  8,000 

Army,  584,000 

Indians,  200,000 

Miscellaneous,      20,000 

922,000 
Ded.  as  above     184,400 

ARKANSAS. 

Special,  20,000 

Pensions,  2,000 

Army  &  Indians  1 10,000 

132,000 
Deduct  as  above,  26,400 


Expenditures  from 
them  in  1834. 


Balance,      $142,40 


Balance,        654,400 


Balance,        737,600 


Balance,         105,600 
Western,  $2,990,000 


Collections  in  1834. 


Lands, 


$248,374 


L.ands, 


231,696 


,ands,       $469,188 
Customs,         2,114 


471,302 


ands, 


70,558 
$2,122,530 


$21,293,200 
20,624,717 

$28,908 
1,127,297 

$1,156,205 

Expenditures  more  than  collections  in  South  and  Southwestern  States,  957,218 
Expenditures  more  than  collections  in  Western  States,  867,470 


The  whole  expenditures  of  appropriations  for  1834 
The  whole  collections  in  1834, 

Expenditures  less  than  collections  in  Eastern  States, 
Expenditures  less  than  collections  in  Middle  States, 


$1,824,688 


(\ — 

jot*. 


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